Caiden Tate and the Bloody Murderers
by Mangobean
Summary: This is my story. It's your everyday Skulduggery scenario, but with some differences: different characters, different magic, a different place, same everything else. Please review, everything else, pfffffttt your choice.
1. Prologue

**Caiden Tate and the Bloody Murderers**

**Prologue**

The man got up and turned to the door, he started walking. He felt everyone else in the room look at him confused. Even the speaker stopped and stared. The man didn't care; he just needed to get out of the building and away from this place. He reached to door and yanked it open, as soon as he was out of sight, he ran. He knew he couldn't take any chances, not with resourceful people like the ones he was dealing with. The suit he was wearing was not made for running, and neither was he and with the people who were bound to be chasing him, he doubted he'd even make the lobby.

He heard the knife before he saw it and instinctively twisted out the way; it missed his cheek by a hair breath. There was someone behind him, someone chasing him, he could hear their steady breathing but didn't have the nerve to look round. He came to the hall and vaulted the railing, as he hit the ground he rolled and as he came up he almost stumbled, not exactly smooth but his momentum carried him forward and he continued running.

He heard his pursuer land, gracefully, barely making a sound. Wow, he felt like an amateur compared to these people. He ran towards the corridor that headed through to the lobby, hope seemed small, but at least it was still there. He heard a crack as another missile, this time a throwing axe, embedded itself in the floor where his foot had been a millisecond ago, damn they were good.

He was almost at the corridor when he became aware of his pursuer readying their aim. He rolled and the throwing star soared over him, grazing his back, his pursuer cursed. The door was getting closer and closer, the distance smaller and smaller. He reached the door and grabbed the handle, he heard his pursuer stop, maybe she'd given up, he didn't care.

The boot came from nowhere; kicking his feet out from under him, he fell backwards, cracking his head against the rock hard floor. Ouch, he thought, but that was the least of his worries. The owner of the boot stepped out in front of him grinning, blocking his exit. The stranger was tall, with blue eyes and longish blonde hair under his Stetson and with his two revolvers and leather boots he looked just like he'd stepped out of a Wild West movie. The man recognised him from his files, Angelo Scraper was his name. He was world renown for his deadly accuracy with his revolvers, oh and for being a notorious serial killer. Scraper was wanted in 23 different countries for murder, more murder and stealing a penguin from a zoo! The man knew that even if he did only the slightest thing wrong, Scraper wouldn't hesitate to shoot him.

Of course Scraper was rarely seen out of the company of his twin sister; he heard a cackle behind him and turned to look at his pursuer. Angela Scraper looked every bit the madwoman. At first glance, she looked completely unlike her twin with frizzy dark hair and a crazed look in her deep brown eyes, but there was the same murderous aura about her as her twin. She had a piercing in her bottom lip and wore a black leather jacket which made her look just like a punk. She had a belt around her waist filled with all manner of nasty projectiles, from the small throwing knives she'd already used to a nasty sphere with a spike on the end which looked suspiciously like a spike bomb.

These twins were two of the members of the infamous Bloody Murderers and if these two were here, then the others wouldn't be far behind, he had to act fast. The Bloody Murderers were a ruthless gang who didn't care who they killed, they just did it.

He considered his options, attack one of these two and take them by surprise, he didn't like his chances. He could try and make a mad dash for one of the other two exits that were left open; there was another door across from him that led to a hallway. From there he might be able to find an exit, he doubted he'd make it nearly that far however. The other exit, a much closer option was a stairway that led up, he didn't know where he would be able to go from there but it was his best option.

His hopes were dashed when a huge figure lumbered through the door across from him and stood there to guard it. The huge man's name was Archie Bellows, he wore a huge black trench coat and huge black boots which the man figured would probably be able to squish his head like a bug if the chance presented itself. Archie Bellows was huge, strong and an all-round thug. The man's chances were getting slimmer and slimmer. There were still two members of the gang who hadn't yet shown their face. The three stood there as if waiting for him to try something stupid, or perhaps waiting for something else, the man didn't care, he made a dash for the stairs, the other three didn't move, they just stood there and continued waiting, he didn't know why, he didn't care. As he ran he heard a sound from above, he looked up but too late, something landed on him and he collapsed to the ground.

The something wore a ruined suit and a top hat that had evidently never been washed, the something was Sickening and Sickening was unique. Sickening got up and walked backwards a few steps and the man got up groaning.

"So then Oliver, we're here to kill you." Angelo stated bluntly.

"H-How did you find me?" Oliver stammered.

"Easy, we had a chat with your family." Angelo said happily.

"If you hurt them…" Oliver threatened and Angelo laughed.

"They're fine, I would never harm a woman, or a child for that matter, who do you, think I am, a monster?"

"Yes." Oliver replied bluntly and Angelo laughed again.

"I like you, you're funny." Angelo laughed, no-one else was laughing, Archie was staring at them, Sickening was twiddling his thumbs and Angela was grinning at them, her mad, psychopathic grin, but Angelo didn't seem to notice, he just laughed.

"When you say they weren't harmed, I think that's an understatement, didn't one of the kids lose an arm?" asked Sickening.

"Oh yeah," Angelo said as if just remembering, "You might wanna get that replaced."

Oliver lunged at him; Angelo laughed and easily dodged so that Oliver stumbled into the door. He turned and this time sent a jab to the throat, Angelo just caught his arm and kicked him. Oliver fell down groaning and all the others laughed.

"You're not very good are you?" taunted Angelo, Oliver couldn't agree more.

"Can we kill him now?" asked Sickening.

"We've gotta wait for Maelicen, he hates it when we kill without him." replied Angelo.

"Awwwww! Can't we just do a bit….." moaned Sickening.

"A bit of what?" Angelo asked, confused.

"Killing."

"You want us to do a bit of killing?" Angelo asked even more confused.

"Yeah, we could cut off his head or something." Archie suggested helpfully.

"No you idiot, that would kill him!" snapped Sickening. "But maybe we could…"

He was cut short by footsteps as Maelicen Villainous strode down the steps and into the Lobby. A mask covered his face, simple but unsettling, especially since it was the last thing that so many would have seen.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, "It was unavoidable I'm afraid." His voice sounded slightly calm and reassuring, almost safe, which was incredibly ironic as the man was anything but.

"Can we get on with the killing now?" Sickening pleaded.

"Yes, let's do that." Maelicen confirmed and the others grinned and closed in. Even through the mask Oliver could feel Villainous' smile as he closed in for the kill.

Norman Percival was in a hurry, he needed to get somewhere, fast. He'd tried running but quickly realised he wasn't very good at it, so he decided to take a taxi. The mortal who was driving it was clearly not a very good driver. They nearly crashed too many times to count. After ten of the most traumatic minutes of his life, Norman decided to just walk. He paid the driver and stumbled out clutching his stomach and as the taxi drove off, he was violently sick.

"Are you ok there Norman?" said a voice, from Texas if he was not mistaken, which he usually wasn't. Norman looked up and saw the owner of the voice, yep definitely from Texas. There was a woman behind the Tex who had an insane grin on her face, every single part of Norman was saying, run, this isn't good!

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" demanded Norman.

"Both great questions…" the Tex answered," Which will be revealed in due course. However in the meantime, if you'd like to come with us."

"I don't even know you, how can I trust you?"

"See, I told you we should have used violence" A voice said from behind Norman and he yelped as a misshapen creature walked up to him, "We could have walked up behind him and slit his throat, it could have been so much easier, but no, you insisted on talking to him first, and then killing him."

"Shut up!" snapped the Tex.

"Y-You're going to kill m-m-me?" Norman stammered.

"No, we ain't gonna hurt you Norman, we're nice people. You have my word as a serial killer." Angelo insisted.

"Y-you're a s-serial killer?"

"Damn it, me and my big mouth." frowned the Tex, "Oh well, I guess we'll have to do it Sickening's way, goodbye Norman." His frown turned to a grin and he stalked forward with the others. Norman knew he was dead, they were truly insane.

Damien Flynn wasn't used to things like this, he tracked down murderers, battled villains, but he didn't look after babies. For a start, he didn't know how to hold it, did he support its legs or head? Was he meant to hold it close? Which way up was it meant to be? Ok, he was pretty sure about the last one. He wasn't meant for this, but of course, when his wife went out with her friends, he was landed with baby duty. He had literally just sat down after finally lulling the baby to sleep when it started screaming again, what was it with this thing, it was like an alarm! Damien picked up the baby and held it in close to his chest; he hugged it for a while until it quietened.

Of course, just as he was walking back over to the cot, it threw up all over him and started crying again. Damien just stood there, staring at the baby in his arms as if asking: Why? He put it down and went to get its bottle. He sat it down on his lap and fed it until it was fast asleep, what now? He couldn't get up; he cursed his bad luck and searched for the TV remote. There it was, just out of arm's reach. He moved, still in his sitting position and grabbed the remote triumphantly.

He moved back to the sofa and turned on the TV and the doorbell rang, who could that be? He manoeuvred the baby until it was lying, still fast asleep on the sofa, result! He imagined his wife standing in the doorway, back early from her party, or an angry neighbour coming to complain about the noise, he hoped it was the former. Instead it was the serial killer.

"Surprise!" Angelo Scraper exclaimed and shot him.

**A/N: Hi unlucky reader I apologize for the time you wasted reading this, but it was your fault for clicking on it. I have good news and bad news, the good news is that you have the opportunity to click away now and therefore not have to read any other chapters of this monstrosity. The bad news is that there are already other chapters out and more are coming so if you feel as if you wish to read more (couldn't think why) then you can and will be able to continue until the end (hopefully). Please review because I really want to know what people think of it, if you've written too, then you'll see what I mean. If you do review it and say its crap, then at least I'll be able take it down, or try and improve it. If you feel the need to follow or favourite, then sure, if you want. Thanks for reading anyway, please continue if you want and I'll continue to update steadily, thanks.**

**Mangobean.**


	2. Chapter 1-Caiden

**Chapter One**

Caiden Tate looked at the letter in his hands and cursed under his breath, the letter read,

_Mr Caiden Tate,_

_Something has arisen at the Guild that we would like you to take a look at; the address is on the back._

_Kind Regards, Guild Master Nevada of the Magicians Guild of Britain._

Caiden scowled, not at the letter itself but at who had signed it, the Guild Master himself, this was obviously important.

Caiden put the letter back on the table and grabbed a box of cereal, he poured and cursed.

"Of all people, why me, and why now?" he muttered to himself.

He hadn't had a case for a while and was beginning to settle into the easy routine of doing nothing all day, he found it very relaxing and he was beginning to get used to it, it in itself was relaxing.

Caiden grabbed the milk and poured, he couldn't believe he got called in at this time, on this day. He'd planned a wonderful evening of lounging on the sofa and watching rubbish American cop shows on the TV. He began to munch on his cereal when the responsibility in his life strode in and announced himself to the world.

"Good morning life!" announced Emerson, Caiden's younger brother. Emerson was 24, six full years younger than his older brother. With his blonde hair and blue eyes he was the spitting image of his brother. In fact, the only way you could tell them apart was by what they wore, while Caiden wore a simple jacket and jeans, Emerson wore a suit. Of course he wore the normal, black jacket, black trousers, white shirt, black, laced shoes and a simple black tie.

"Here we go…" Caiden muttered.

"Oi!" retorted Emerson and Caiden laughed.

"Ooooohhh, what's this?" Emerson asked as he plucked the letter out of Caiden's hand.

"Oi, gimme it back!" Caiden snapped back angrily and tried grabbing it back.

"Oh, that's nice. A letter signed by the great holiness Nevada himself, that must be important!"

"Give it back and I'll tell you what it is!" Caiden snapped and Emerson handed him back the letter.

"There's something the Guild needs my help with." Caiden explained.

"Oh, cool, when are we leaving?"

"We?" asked Caiden.

"Well obviously I'm coming too; I haven't been to this new Guild yet."

"I guess I have no say in the matter then…" sighed Caiden.

"Nope none at all."

"Well, I guess we're both going to check out the new Magicians Guild then, this should be fun."

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" asked Emerson 5 hours later as they stood in a field.

"This is where it said." Caiden answered doubtfully.

"Do you even know where we are?"

"Not a clue, but it said it would pick us up near Beckendale Farm." Caiden answered, indicating the farm house that was standing near 500 metres away.

"I guess the Guild being a huge airship means that it could pick us up anywhere, and this is completely out of the way so it wouldn't be seen by any mortals." Emerson thought for a moment, and then said, "It can't be very subtle though, can it?"

"What?"

"The Guild, if it's a huge airship surely it would be really easy to notice."

"Yeah, I guess." Caiden agreed.

"They should make it invisible; that would be awesome!" decided Emerson.

"Yeah, it would be pretty cool, you should suggest that to them."

"Yeah, I might."

They heard a deafening noise and Caiden muttered, "Here we go."

They looked up and there it was, the new British Magicians Guild, they stared in horror.

"It's bright green!" Emerson grimaced.

"Indeed." Caiden agreed.

"It's horrible!"

"Indeed." Caiden repeated.

"Now I really wish it was invisible." Emerson muttered and Caiden grinned.

As the airship landed a piercing high pitched screech reverberated across the field and a ramp slowly slid out.

"Are they gonna come out to meet us?" Emerson wondered.

"Good question." Caiden answered.

"Shall we go in?"

"They'll probably come out to meet us." Caiden said hopefully.

After a good two minutes, Caiden muttered something along the lines of, "Screw the lazy…" and he led the way onto the airship.

The man that met them inside was a small, spiteful, middle aged man, who had somehow got the job as the Guild Masters' adviser probably after years of grovelling.

"Mr Caiden Tate, you're expected, and… Emerson" Ernest Green spat.

"Hello there Mr Green, we're both here to see our good old holiness Nevada." Emerson said cheerfully and he barged straight past the smaller man and continued on. Green fumed and grabbed his arm.

"You will wait until the Guild Master is ready to see you, he is extremely busy." Green snapped.

"It's fine Ernest, I'm sure old Nevo won't mind if we come in."

"You should address Guild Master Nevada by his full title, as you should me…" he stopped when Emerson grabbed his arm and twisted till he could feel the bone almost snapping and Green yelped like a puppy.

"Of course Ernest, I'll keep that in mind." Emerson said and released his arm. Green jerked backwards and hit his head on the floor; he didn't try to get up.

"So then Caiden, shall we go say hi to Nevo now?" he didn't wait for an answer he just strode off down the corridor. Caiden shrugged and followed, carefully stepping over the small whimpering heap on the floor that was crying and clutching his arm. He was muttering something like, "It's ok, the pain will go." Over and over again, he'd never been much of a fighter, Caiden thought.

"It's a left, not a right." Caiden shouted down the corridor and Emerson turned and continued walking.

"Mr Tate, you're here." Guild Master Nevada stated.

"Yes, I believe I am." Caiden agreed.

"What up Nevo?" Emerson interrupted as he strode into the room grinning.

"Ah, it's you…" Nevada muttered quietly.

"Oh yes, Guild Master, this is my younger brother Emerson, I don't believe you've met."

"Oh, no, we have…" Nevada grimaced, obviously remembering a not so fond memory and Emerson's grin widened.

"Anyway, let us get on to the matter at hand." Nevada began. "There have been reports of over 15 deaths, both in and out of this country, including an American Guild Member, Oliver Laecent, Doctor Norman Percival, who I believe works for the Australian Guild and the Commander of our very own Combat Mages, Damien Flynn.

"How did they all die?" asked Caiden.

"Murder we assume, I mean over 15 deaths in the space of a week, that can't be a coincidence."

"What were the causes of death?"

"They varied, some were shot in the head, others looked as if they had been stabbed maybe by a smaller weapon of some sort and others had simply been ripped apart." Emerson grimaced at the thought.

"Do we have any idea who killed them?" He asked.

"Actually yes, we do. The killers have been making no attempt to hide or even be subtle in the slightest."

"Who was it then?" Emerson asked.

"See for yourselves." Nevada said as he brought out a tablet. On the screen, there was a reasonable clear picture, he pressed play and the video started.

In the video, there was a man running, no, being chased down an alleyway. Behind the man there were three people; Caiden could just make them out. There was a man, of average height, who looked just like he was out of a wild western movie; he seemed to be barely even jogging and full of energy, while the victim seemed to be nearly out of breath. One of the other people was a punkish woman, with a belt at her waist that was filled with all manner of small nasty weapons, who was grinning crazily and obviously enjoying the thrill of the hunt. The last person was a huge man who was lumbering after the victim and like the others he was barely out of breath. Caiden gasped, he recognised all three of those people.

The victim stumbled and fell to the ground and so the three chasers attacked him. It was a horrific sight, the huge man and the punkish women grabbed the victim and yanked him to his feet. The wild western man seemed to be asking the victim questions, but the man was covered in sweat and blood and seemed barely able to move his mouth. When the victim didn't talk, the wild western man laid into him with punches and even on the video, Caiden could see that the victim was being beaten to death.

The huge man grabbed the victim and launched him into a wall; Caiden could almost feel the man's bones crack and snap. The huge man grabbed him again and held him while the woman pulled a large knife from her belt and thrust it into the man's arm; it went through as if it was butter and Caiden could see the man scream. What happened next was wrong; the woman gripped the knife that was still lodged in the man's arm and slowly began to pull it down. The man stopped screaming and instead just writhed silently in agony. Caiden wanted to look away, but couldn't, his eyes seemed to be fixed on the dreadful torture. The woman yanked her knife out, but only after having ripped it all the way down to the victim's wrist. The victim went limp and the western man pulled out his revolver and shot him in the head.

Angelo Scraper turned and winked at the camera, and then it went black. The room was silent for a while, until Emerson broke the silence,

"Who were those people?" he asked, horrified.

"The Scraper twins, Angelo and Angela, you can guess which is which." Caiden started.

"Which ones, the punkish lady and the cowboy dude?" Emerson asked.

"Yeah, and the big guy was Archie Bellows."

"I've never heard of any of them." Emerson complained.

"There three of the five members of the Bloody Murderers." Caiden explained.

"The what now?" Emerson asked.

"They're a gang of notorious serial killers."

"You said there are five of them, who are the other two?" asked Emerson.

"Sickening…" Caiden began.

"I'm sorry what?" asked Emerson.

"He's a unique creature whose profession is… Yep, you've guessed it a serial killer."

"Oh joy!" Emerson muttered.

"There's also their leader, Maelicen Villainous."

"Sounds like a lovely chap." Emerson joked and Caiden rolled his eyes.

"Anyway…" Nevada interjected. "There's one thing that we don't know, how are these deaths all connected?"

"Knowing Angelo and Angela Scraper, It's quite possible that they just got bored and started killing people." Caiden suggested.

Nevada shook his head, "No, if they were just killing people for the fun of it, why take the time in going to different countries."

"Fair enough." Caiden agreed.

"Just think, what do the deaths have in common?" Nevada probed them and there was silence.

"It might be the people?" Emerson suggested.

"What?" Caiden asked, confused.

"It might be something the people have in common."

Caiden thought for a moment, and then his face lit up.

"That's it, Emerson, you're a genius!" Caiden exclaimed.

"I know, wait, why?"

"It's the people!" Caiden stated as if it was obvious. "Nevada, what countries were all the victims from?"

"All either Australia, Britain or…"

"America!" Emerson completed, who'd cottoned on to Caiden's idea now.

"How did you know?" Nevada asked.

"They're the three major magical communities." Caiden answered for him.

"Oh yeah, ok we have something." Nevada concluded.

"But what's their motive?" Caiden wondered. "And what exactly are we going to do about it?"

"That's where you come in." Nevada answered. "I need you to bring a group of people together; I assume you're going to want your brother with you?"

_Caiden looked at Emerson, "Well duh!" Emerson replied._

_ "Ok then, get three more people together, I'm relying on you to take them down."_

_ "We'll do our best." Caiden assured him._

_ "Do better Mr Tate."_

_Caiden hesitated, "Of course Guild Master."_

_ "Good, well off you go then. Also, one more thing, I sent Green out to meet you, did you not see him?" Nevada asked. Emerson cleared his throat uncomfortably._

_ "Well, we did, he just…" Caiden started._

_ "He just what?" Nevada prompted._

_There was a moment of silence until Emerson replied, "Got in the way."_

_ "I hope he isn't too badly injured." Nevada said doubtfully._

_ "Not really, he just made a lot of noise." Emerson said helpfully._

_ "Go on then, before assault charges are pressed." Nevada grumbled somewhat humourless._

_Emerson grinned, "See ya Nevo, good luck with the whole being in charge business." And the two brothers left the Guild Master muttering to himself, "Do you know how hard it is to get a good, hard-working assistant these days? Granted he may not be very good, or hard-working for that matter, but that's not my point."_


	3. Chapter 2-The Situation At Hand

_**Chapter 2**_

_The first man for the job lived in Scotland, so the brothers set off up north in Caiden's truck._

_ "What did he mean when Nevada said that you two had met?" Caiden asked his brother._

_ "Oh, it's a long story involving a murderer in Wales and a lot of wombats." Emerson grinned and Caiden decided not to ask._

_ "So, have you ever come across these Bloody Murderers?" asked Emerson._

_ "Not all of them at once but I've had encounters with Archie Bellows and Sickening. I've only heard stories about Villainous, the Scraper twins; well… let's just say we have a bit of a history…" By the look on Caiden's face, Emerson doubted it was a fun history._

_ "Any of them I couldn't beat?" Emerson asked jokingly._

_ "From what I've seen and heard, all of them."_

_ "Oi, just 'cause your jealous of my magic." Emerson retorted._

_ "I'm jealous of your magic? Ha that's a new one, energy manipulation's overrated!" Caiden threw back._

_ "Yeah, and fire mastery isn't?" Emerson snorted._

_ "Actually, no."_

_ "Well…" Emerson started. "Actually no, it isn't is it?"_

_ "Not even remotely."_

_ "I feel kind of silly now…" _

_ "Not the first time that's happened."_

_They sat in silence for a while until Emerson asked, "What magic disciplines are they?__"_

_ "Well Sickening's just Sickening." Caiden began._

_ "What you mean he's disgusting?" Emerson asked confused._

_ "What? No, I mean he's unique; there isn't anyone or anything like him. He kind of springs around and stuff."_

_ "Oh, I was gonna say."_

_ "Archie Bellows is huge and so naturally strong, but he does earth mastery. The twins are seriously deadly with their respective weapons, Angela, her small throwing weapons and Angelo his two revolvers, but they're both naturally agile and fast. Finally, Villainous, no-one knows."_

_ "What, no-one's ever seen him use magic?" Emerson asked._

_ "Apparently people have, but they haven't lived to tell the tale."_

_ "Oh." Emerson said, having suddenly gone pale. "So you're basically saying that we're going up against a unique, murderous creature, a huge thuggish killing machine, a pair of twin psychopaths and a legend?" Emerson asked astonished._

_ "Pretty much, yep." Caiden said happily._

_All of the cockiness drained from Emerson's face. "How exactly are we meant to defeat them?" he asked despairing._

_ "Cheer up, you haven't met the other members of our team yet, they could be the best magicians you've ever seen…"_

_ "Well are they?"_

_ "No." Caiden admitted, "but that's not the point!"_

_ "What is the point?" Emerson asked._

_ "I'm not really sure… It's something like you shouldn't despair just because we're probably gonna die, you should ummmm… persevere or something."_

_ "Very inspirational." Emerson said sarcastically._

_ "I thought so." Caiden agreed._

_ "But couldn't we just send in an army of magicians, maybe some Combat Mages or something?" Emerson asked hopefully._

_ "Well, firstly, we don't have the resources to just dispatch an army, and the Combat Mages are in disarray because they're without a leader. Secondly, this needs to be handled delicately and subtly and sending an army of magicians rampaging around isn't exactly inconspicuous. Finally, and most importantly, we have no idea where the heck they are, which is where we come in." Caiden explained._

_ "Oh, I get it; old Nevo doesn't like getting his hands dirty so he hires us out to do his dirty work for him." Emerson guessed._

_ "Almost, except we haven't exactly been hired out…"_

_ "What!?" Emerson demanded._

_ "Well, the Guild couldn't spare any money 'cause they have to deal with all the damage that the Bloody Murderers have caused, so, we're kind of working on this for free…"_

_ "What!?" Emerson repeated._

_ "Think of it this way, we're doing it out of the goodness of our heart." Caiden suggested._

_ "Yeah, but why for free?"_

_ "Well, as I said, I have a history with the Scraper twins and sometimes, you've just gotta do things, I think…"_

_Emerson crossed his arms and pretended to sulk, muttering something along the lines of, "It's not like money grows on trees, soon we're gonna be left with zilch!"_

_ For two hours there was no sound except the low, gentle hum of the engine, until Emerson broke the silence, saying, "So who is this mysterious first member of the team?"_

_ "Oh, him, you'll love him, probably…" Caiden said doubtfully._

_ "You don't sound sure…"_

_ "Well… He practises shadow magic."_

_ "Aren't people who do shadow magic really creepy?"_

_ "Yes." Caiden admitted forlornly._

_ "So I probably won't like him?"_

_ "You might do?" Caiden said hopefully, but his brother just looked at him. "Probably not, no."_

_ "If he isn't a likeable person, then why do we have him on the team?"_

_ "First of all, you haven't even met him, so how do you know he isn't very likeable, he could be a lovely person. You shouldn't judge him before you even know him; I expected more from you Emerson." Caiden said disappointed._

_ "Is he a very likeable person?" Emerson asked._

_ "Well not really no…"_

_ "Why do we need him then?"_

_ "Because he's a very powerful magician and we're gonna need him if we're gonna want to stand a chance against the people we're facing."_

_ "Yeah, but couldn't we have got someone other than a shadow magician?" Emerson whined._

_ "No!" Caiden snapped at him._

_ "Why not?"_

_ "Because other magicians don't owe me favours."_

_ "Why would they have to owe you favours?"_

_ "Who else would willingly come on a clearly suicidal mission?"_

_ "Good point." Emerson agreed._

_ "Especially with someone as annoying as you." Caiden continued._

_ "Yeah, wait, hey!" Emerson shouted and Caiden laughed._

_There was a moments silence until Emerson asked, "Why exactly does he owe you a favour?"_

_ "Oh, well I was doing some things for the Italian Guild, in Italy, tracking down killers, that sort of thing."_

_Emerson nodded._

_ "I worked out he was one of the murderer's next victims so I rushed over to the hotel he was staying at to stop the killer before he could strike…"_

_ "So he owes because you stopped someone from trying to kill him, fair enough." Emerson interjected._

_ "No." Caiden said. "I got to the hotel that he was staying at and he'd already battered the killer, he owes me because I fed his gerbil while he was away."_

_ Emerson stared at his brother._

_ "I hate you!" Emerson said._

_ "I know." Caiden grinned._

_After a few minutes of more silence, Emerson asked, "Wasn't there that one shadow magician that you met once, what was his name? Ummmm…"_

_ "Ryker Crow?" Caiden answered._

_ "Yeah, that's it, absolutely horrible man, didn't like me for some reason." Emerson said, genuinely confused._

_ "Yeah, baffling." Caiden said sarcastically, but Emerson was too busy frowning to himself to notice._

_ "Anyway," Caiden continued. "There's one thing you haven't asked me yet."_

_ "What?" Emerson asked leaning forward in expectation._

_ "What his name is." Caiden said, a smile beginning to creep onto his lips._

_ "Oh, oh no."_

_ "Our first team member's name is…"_

_ "Please no, I really don't like him."_

_ "Ryker Crow!" Caiden announced triumphantly, and Emerson groaned._

_ "But he doesn't like me." Emerson whined._

_ "Uhuh." Caiden agreed._

_ "And I don't like him."_

_ "You said."_

_ "What if he says no?" Emerson asked, changing his tack._

_ "Well, we'll have to hope he doesn't."_

_ "But last time he said he didn't like my suit."_

_ "Well for the sake of your amazingly enormous ego, let's hope that that's changed."_

_ "He might hit me."_

_ "Let's hope so yes."_

_ "If he does, I'll hit him back." Emerson decided, completely ignoring his older brother's comment._

_ "Fair enough."_

_ "I'm ok with it then." Emerson decided._

_ "Good."_

_ "When we arrive, you ring his doorbell and then I'll step out and say hello. If he hits me then I'll have to hit him back, harder." Emerson continued._

_ "Ok."_

_ "Ok, let's go."_

_ "We're going."_

_ "Good." Emerson said and slumped back into his seat._

_ "This could be interesting." Caiden muttered._

_After what felt like years of driving down country roads that all looked exactly the same, they pulled into a small driveway where a tiny cottage stood, lonely and detached, just like its inhabitant. The house itself had white bricks; however at every other chance it had got, it had been painted black, it all looked freshly painted. The windowsills, the doors, even the roof, typical shadow magician. There was a small garden with minimal amounts of flowers, in fact there weren't actually any flowers so to speak, but there were a lot of plants, especially spiked bushes. Emerson looked at Caiden quizzically,_

_ "It's a Shadow Magician thing." His brother answered._

_ Caiden trudged up to the front door, with Emerson, like a dog at his heels. Caiden went to press the doorbell but realised that there wasn't one, instead a heavy dark knocker hung there ready to be swung. Caiden grabbed it and swung it forward making a load banging sound on the door. They could hear the sound of someone getting up and a door opening and then closing. They heard footsteps getting closer until they stopped, and there was the sound of a bolt being pushed aside, the handle turned and the door creaked open._

_ Standing in the doorway, was a huge intimidating man, dressed all in black. The man wore a long jacket that reached down to his ankles, and below there were a huge pair of black walking boots._

_ "Yes?" Ryker Crow grumbled, his deep voice ringing in the ears of the two brothers._

_ "Ryker Crow, my name is Caiden Tate, you might remember me." Caiden explained."_

_ "I do." Crow confirmed._

_ "May I come in?" Caiden asked hopefully._

_ "Why are you here?" Crow asked, ignoring Caiden's question._

_ "To ask you for a favour."_

_Emerson picked just the wrong moment to chip in and he stepped out from behind Caiden and said, "Hello Ryker, I know we may have got off on the wrong foot, but I'm willing to put aside our differences and…" He didn't get to finish his sentence because Ryker Crow's fist slammed into his face and he toppled backwards into a bush._

_ "Come in," Ryker said to Caiden. "Would you like tea or coffee?"_

**A/N: So as I said in the last A/N, here's Ryker, as you can see, he and Emerson are close, hope you like him. Please review and if you want, read on, there are already other chapters up; I'll be updating steadily, the usual. More should be happening in the next chapter, a little violence maybe? Anyway, thanks for reading.**

**Mangobean.**


	4. Chapter 3-Violence

_**Chapter 3**_

_Caiden sat on the sofa across from Ryker while Emerson lay on the sofa next to him, still unconscious. The bush that Emerson had fallen in had been especially spiky so his back was a mess of red marks and cut, some of the pricks were still stuck in and so Caiden was going at his brother's back with a pair of tweezers. He had a little bowl where he'd put all the pricks and there was a pile that was getting bigger and bigger, how had all of these pricks come from one bush, Caiden asked himself._

_ Emerson began to stir and so Caiden prodded him in the flabby bit of his back with the tweezers and he jolted awake._

_ "What happened?" Emerson asked._

_ "We settled our differences." Ryker justified._

_ "The last thing I remember was talking and then seeing a slight movement and then nothing, and why does my head hurt so much?" Emerson asked confused. "Oh…" he continued as the realisation dawned upon him. "He hit me didn't he?"_

_ "Uhuh." Caiden confirmed smiling and Emerson groaned._

_ "Why does my back sting so much?"_

_ "Oh, that, well you kind of fell into a bush."_

_ "What?"_

_ "A really prickly, and now reasonably crushed bush." Caiden said laughing and Emerson shot up and stormed towards Ryker who just sat there calmly. Emerson swung a punch that would have felled many a man, but with unnatural speed, Ryker grabbed his wrist and twisted. This surprised Emerson, but he wasn't done. His other hand shot out and grabbed Ryker's jacket, he yanked the bigger man forward and met his face with his forehead and Ryker grunted and released his grip._

_ Now that Emerson had both hands at his disposal, he planned to finish the fight quickly and abruptly before his opponent could even get up. His right hand shot forward again, this time when Ryker tried to grab it, Emerson's other hand batted it away. Emerson's fist smashed into Ryker's mouth and Ryker grunted, this time in obvious pain. Emerson prepared to strike again but this time, Ryker was ready and when Emerson was tensed to strike, he flicked up some shadows which took out Emerson's legs so that he fell forward and Ryker launched his knee up and caught Emerson full in the face, the crunching sound was sickening._

_ Caiden expected Emerson to stay down, maybe even be unconscious again but he slowly rose to his feet and he backed away from Ryker, giving him space to stand up. Caiden could tell things were about to get nasty._

_ "That's just dirty, using magic in a hand to hand brawl!" Emerson snarled and his whole body began to crackle with energy, but Ryker just shrugged._

_Emerson lifted his right hand and a powerful stream of energy shot towards where Ryker had just been, vaporizing a whole through the sofa. Ryker rolled up and sent a spear of shadows straight at Emerson but he just brought up a shield of energy and absorbed the spear._

_ Caiden could now see the sphere of energy that now encircled Emerson; he'd got a proper shield. Ryker either didn't notice, or just didn't care because he continued his onslaught. Emerson's shield was meant to stop big, powerful attacks that would threaten his safety so every so often, Ryker would just send in a slither of darkness just to trip his opponent up of do a little bit of damage._

_ They traded fire, Emerson firing streams of energy and Ryker commanding the shadows, both powerful magicians, both doing a considerable amount of damage to the house. When it seemed that neither was going to get through the other one's defences, they decided to resort back to hand to hand and charged._

_ As they got closer, Emerson began to drift down slightly and at the moment before they struck, Emerson went low and tackled Ryker, forcing him backwards and taking him down. Emerson raised his hand and it started to glow, the stream readying, it let loose but missed considerably because at the moment before it fired, Emerson was tackled, knocked off by his brother before he could deal the killing blow. Caiden restrained him and Ryker got up and brushed himself off._

_ "Don't even think about it!" Caiden warned._

_ "I wasn't, I was just going to fetch some biscuits."_

_ Half an hour later, they all sat on the sofa drinking tea and munching on biscuits, discussing the matter at hand. Caiden had calmed his brother down and managed to persuade both of them not to try and kill each other._

_ "So will you help us?" Caiden asked finally._

_ "I don't see any reason why not." Ryker responded._

_ "Great, well you might want to prepare while we go and recruit the other members of the team and we'll meet you where we discussed in three days, ok?"_

_ "Agreed, as long as your younger brother gets his act together, we don't want any more accidents." He said the last word as if it meant something much worse, which, to be fair, it did. Caiden and Ryker both stood up and shook hands, while Emerson stood up and grinned and Ryker who just ignored him._

_ "See ya in three days then Ryko." Emerson said and led the way out._

_They got in the van and Caiden sat down and sighed, exasperated and made no move to start the van._

_ "What?" Emerson asked._

_ "You really do have a way with people, don't you?" Caiden complained._

_ "It's one of my special talents; it's what makes me unique." Emerson insisted. "Anyway, whose next?"_

_ "A young woman who lives in the highlands, not far from here, practises air mastery actually."_

_ "Oh right, what's her name?"_

_ "Amya Radiant."_

_ "Really?" Emerson asked._

_ "Yep, her name is actually Amya Radiant."_

_ "Well is she, ummm… radiant?"_

_ "You can judge that by yourself."_

_ "I'm looking forward to this." Emerson said excitedly._

_ "I expected as much." Caiden agreed knowingly._

_Caiden started the van and they set off down the winding, long country roads._

_ "I knew I would be able to do it." Emerson muttered._

_ "Do what?"_

_ "Beat Ryker, at first I thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew, but then I got into my usual rhythm and it started going pretty well, if you hadn't stopped me, I reckon we'd only have four people in the team." Emerson said cockily._

_ "He wasn't trying his hardest." Caiden muttered._

_ "I'm sorry?"_

_ "Ryker, I've seen him fight properly, that wasn't his best." Caiden said louder._

_ "You're just saying that…"_

"You should get a rematch then, find out that way."

"I might, yeah." Emerson said, but he didn't sound too sure about it.

They sat in silence for a while, the trees and fields skimming by.

"How exactly do you know Amya, and why is she in the team, does she owe you any favours?" asked Emerson and Caiden shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, no, she's doesn't owe me anything as such but…"

"But what?" Emerson questioned.

"Well, we were kind of… involved… together… kind of…" Caiden muttered looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh, right…" Emerson said, trying not to laugh. "Why do you think she'll help us?"

"She's a good person and so hopefully she will see the goodness of what we are going to try and do and not just the suicidal side." Caiden said hopefully. "Hopefully…" he repeated, not very hopeful.

"That didn't sound very hopeful…" Emerson said.

"That's because I'm not really very hopeful." Caiden admitted.

"I didn't think so."

There was an awkward silence until Emerson broke it.

"It's because of the whole, almost certainly suicidal factor isn't it?" Emerson assumed.

"Yeah, pretty much, I guess it doesn't seem quite as appealing as if it wasn't suicidal does it?" Caiden said, baffled.

"Couldn't imagine why…" Emerson agreed equally so.

They both sat there thinking for a while, both completely baffled, as the van slowly trudged down the country roads, the low hum of the engine the only audible sound.

"Could it be that people don't like the idea of danger, or maybe even that they're afraid of dying?" Caiden suggested.

"Maybe, but why?" Emerson wondered.

"I dunno… people are weird." Caiden figured.

"Yeah…" Emerson agreed. "So when you say she lives in the highlands, do you mean…"

"What, no she has a house, she doesn't actually live on a mountain, just on a hill."

"Oh, it's just, knowing the people whom you've been 'involved' with, she could quite possibly have lived in a cave."

"That is it…" Caiden began and pulled the van over to the side of the road.

"No, I didn't mean…" Emerson started but then tried a new tack. "It could be a nice cave…"

Caiden grabbed his brother and got him in a headlock.

"I'm not counting out electricity or anything, no; I'm sure she watches the TV just as much as the rest of us…" Emerson continued.

"She doesn't live in a cave!" Caiden shouted.

"Ooohhh, protective are we?" Emerson taunted, and then his face turned serious. "Look at that!"

"I'm not falling for that."

"No, seriously." Emerson insisted and Caiden glanced over in the direction that Emerson was indicating."

"It's a car." He pointed out, stating the obvious.

"One, why would it stop at the same time as us, I haven't exactly seen thousands of cars racing down this road and huge traffic jams taking ages to bypass…" Emerson began to explain but Caiden interrupted him.

"It's a coincidence, that's all. What, do you think we have some creepy murderous stalker?" Caiden asked, only half joking.

"Let me finish." His brother insisted. "And two, I wasn't suspicious about the car."

Caiden looked at the driver for the first time; he was a young man, possibly of the same age as Caiden, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The thing that really gave it away was the Stetson.

Angelo Scraper winked at them and pulled out his revolver.

"Oh poop…" Caiden said and threw himself down, which wasn't easy in a confined space. The first bullet went straight through one of the windows and it didn't even crack, there was just a perfect circle where the bullet had made a hole. However the second one smashed the window and the shards of glass rained down on them both, none of them big enough to do proper damage, but some went straight through the material and into skin.

"Well, I was right." Caiden said sadly and Emerson whimpered.

"Are you okay?" Caiden asked, fearing the worst.

"No." Emerson said in despair and Caiden got worried. "My suit, it's ruined!" Emerson wailed and Caiden rolled his eyes.

"We're gonna have to get out of here." Caiden said.

"Do you have a plan?" Emerson said expecting the obvious.

"Actually yes." Caiden said surprising his brother. "But you might want to say goodbye to the van…"

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Emerson asked rhetorically.

"Are you ready for a terrible plan?" Caiden asked happily.

"When am I not?" Emerson answered grinning.

"That's our plan?" Emerson asked exasperated, after Caiden had explained it to him. "I've seen some terrible plans, and I thought this was going to be one of them, but no this is impressive, even by your standards."

"Yep, that is our plan, and it was the only thing that I could come up with."

"Wow, I am seriously worried for your well-being, if that's the only thing that you could come up with…" Emerson didn't finish his sentence, but left it hanging in the air.

"Speak for yourself." Caiden retorted. "You didn't come up with anything."

"That's because you're the brainy one, I'm the… Anyway, you can't expect me to agree with this."

"Actually, I kind of can." Caiden said. "You see, if you'd come up with something else, then we could have done that, but as it is, I'm the only with a plan, so you do what I say."

"Yeah, but…" Emerson started. "Whatever."

"Ok, I'll distract Scraper, and then you do what I said."

Emerson mumbled something about how he was never letting Caiden come up with their plan again, and then he nodded.

Caiden opened his side door and sneaked out. Angelo had just been sitting in his car waiting for them to do something, but with his eye on them and his hand on his revolver, he could stop them from getting too far. He saw the flicker of movement and Caiden Tate ran out from behind the van, keeping low with his arms ablaze. Angelo flicked out his revolver and fired, none of the bullets found their mark, Tate was quick. As soon as he switched to reload, his eyes still on Caiden, suddenly, the fire engulfing Caiden's arms grew brighter, so bright that Angelo was temporarily blinded.

When he opened his eyes he saw the van that was speeding towards him, he saw Caiden lift his arm, fire streaming from it and Emerson diving out through the door of the van, and then blackness.

Angelo Scraper opened his eyes to see a face grinning down at him.

"He's awake." Emerson Tate pointed out and his brother's face appeared next to his.

"So he is." Caiden Tate agreed.

Angelo appeared to be in some warehouse, he was sitting, shackled to a chair with Emerson and Caiden Tate standing over him. Across from him was a desk and dotted around the room were similar layouts of chairs and tables.

"Is this where you have your group interrogation sessions then?" Angelo asked jokingly but got no response. "So, I assume I've been captured then, haven't I?" he continued.

"Yep, that's about right." Caiden agreed. "It's what you would've done to us; you probably wouldn't have killed us, not yet, not before you've had a nice friendly bragging session."

"I probably would've done a lot more torturing by now." Angelo admitted. "You should try doing some of that, it's great fun."

"Maybe, except we're actually humane, unlike you." Caiden replied.

"I'm humane, just a lot more fun than most people." Angelo insisted and Caiden punched him.

"Ow… I thought you weren't going to do any torturing." Angelo pointed out.

"That isn't torturing, it's hitting, it's fun." Caiden insisted, using Angelo's words against him and Angelo scowled.

"I'm guessing you wanna know what we're planning and were we're situated and all that…" Angelo asked.

"Yep, that kind of thing would be helpful and very much appreciated." Caiden agreed.

"Well, you know how it is, I can't really help you in any way, I mean I do know everything you want to know, I'm just not going to tell you anything, fair enough?"

"You aren't really in a position to bargain though are you, I mean you were sent in against us without any backup, now you're captured and no-one's coming to save you. Not the best position really is it?"

Angelo laughed. "Ok, ok… Let me tell you a secret." He started. "You know how me and my sister are always together?"

"Yes." Caiden answered warily.

"Well, the reason of that is…" Angelo continued, "We're kind of connected in some way."

Caiden looked up warily. "Where is she then, where's your sister?"

"Well, the fun thing is, we're connected by a telepathic link, so I could tell her anything I wanted, where we are, who we're up against, oh and who to bring on my daring rescue." As he said that they heard a crash as the door splintered against the wall and Archie Bellows lumbered in followed by Angela Scraper and Sickening.

"Ah…" Emerson said and immediately his body began to crackle with energy but it stopped when he got hit by a chair. As Archie picked up another chair a throwing knife cut clean through the shackles as if they were made of butter. Angelo pulled out the throwing knife, got up and gave it back to his sister.

Meanwhile Caiden had engaged in combat with Sickening and Emerson was trying to dodge the chairs that were being chucked his way. Neither battle was going very well. When Archie realised that he had thrown pretty much all the chairs in the room, he picked up a desk, threw it and lumbered after it. Emerson ducked and the desk flew overhead and crashed against the wall, making a huge dent where it had struck. However Emerson could not dodge the huge tank of a man that followed the desk and he was launched backwards into the wall after being shoulder barged by Archie.

Caiden wasn't having much better luck; he was obviously outmatched in close combat so he was trying to use some magic. However, whenever he made any move to summon any fire, Sickening just kicked him, or punched him. As Sickening came in and grabbed him, Caiden let himself be pulled forward and head-butted his opponent in the face and Sickening yowled and backed away. Caiden saw his advantage and his arms became covered in fire, he threw them out in front of him and as the streams of fire were about to shoot forward, Angelo's fist crashed into his jaw.

Caiden staggered backwards and swung his arms wildly to stop Angelo from getting closer. However he didn't notice Angela coming up behind him and he backed right into her and she got an arm around his neck. Caiden's face went red and he gasped for breath but couldn't suck any in. He struggled wildly, but his attempts became weaker and weaker until his body went slack.

"Let go." Angelo commanded.

"But…" his sister protested.

"Let go." Angelo repeated. "There's no point in killing either of them, they can lead their merry band on a search for us and then we can kill them when the time is right."

Angela shrugged and released her hold. She dragged the unconscious Caiden to where his brother lay unconscious. Emerson looked bad; he had cuts all over his face and a nasty gash on his forehead where a chair had struck him. One of his arms was bent the wrong way, the entire right side of his head was covered in blood and his right ear was a mess.

He stirred and Archie lifted up his head and slammed it back down on the hard metal floor, Emerson didn't make a noise but there was a sickeningly loud bang. Angelo led Sickening and his sister towards the door leaving Archie to deal with the brothers.

"What shall I do with them?" Archie asked.

"Leave them on the side of the road somewhere." Angelo answered.

"What do we do next?" Sickening asked.

"We wait." Angelo answered and Sickening groaned, and with that, they were gone.

**A/N: Violence, violence and more violence here, in fact all the real violence so far. Hope you like it all. If you hate violence, why are you reading this? Anyway, review, read on, whatever. There are more chapters up already and I should be updating more at a steady pace. Next chapter, you meet someone new, she's cool, hope you like her. Thanks for reading.**

**Mangobean.**


	5. Chapter 4-Amya and Rysk

**Chapter 4**

Caiden Tate opened his eyes to see a beautiful woman with long black hair, chocolate brown eyes and a playful, sly smile who was standing looking straight over him.

"Hello Amya." He said.

She looked down at him and he tried to sit up. Caiden groaned as pain shot through his entire body.

"Don't try and get up." Amya insisted and hurried to his side.

"How did you find me?" he asked her. "Why am I here?"

Well I saw you collapsed on the side of the road, not far from here, as I was just doing my morning jog and I thought it probably best not to leave you there." She explained. "Do you know how you got there?"

"Wait, morning jog?" Caiden asked.

"Yep, it was around 8 o'clock."

"The last thing I remember was being beaten up by half of the Bloody Murderers."

"Ah, well that would explain the severe bruising, broken bones and continuous lack of consciousness."

"Continuous?" Caiden asked worried.

"Yep, you've been out for, let's see I found you Thursday and it's now, Saturday."

"You found me on a Tuesday. The last thing I remember was on a Monday."

"Ah, so you've been out for a long time."

"Yeah, quite a while." Caiden agreed. "Where's Emerson, is he ok?"

"I'm good bro, Amya here fixed me up really great." Answered a voice from behind Amya and Emerson stepped up and grinned at his brother. "Apparently I had worse injuries than you but I still managed to wake up first, way to go bro."

Caiden rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, Amya, we need to ask you a favour…" Caiden started.

"It's good; I've already briefed her on the mission." Emerson interrupted.

"Oh, ok. Well are you in?" Caiden asked Amya.

"Yeah, sure. I have a history with Sickening so this should be fun." She confirmed.

"Great, well brother dear, who's the last member of our brilliant gang?" Emerson asked sarcastically.

"I'll tell you in the… oh."

"Oh what?" Emerson asked.

"The van." Caiden answered.

"Oh." Emerson said. "It's been slightly exploded, we could try a taxi?" he suggested.

"Have you seen where we are?" Caiden pointed out.

Emerson looked out the window. He could see a long stretch of countryside, fields and hills, nothing else.

"Ah, good point." Emerson agreed.

"I guess we could try walking, it would take a while but it's our only option…."

"Don't be stupid, I'll drive you in my car. I'm not that far from civilisation, you could just hire a car." Amya suggested.

"Oh, that would be great, if you wouldn't mind. As long as you don't have anything to do before you leave…" Caiden said relieved.

"No, I'll be fine, I just need to feed my cat before we go. They have these brilliant electric feeders which can store food, and then when it's food time, the food comes out so the cat can eat from it." Amya said, genuinely amazed.

"Ummmmm, great." Emerson offered and Amya sighed.

"Men." She grumbled and trudged off into the kitchen to set the feeder.

Half an hour later, all three of them sat in Amya's car, slowly trudging down country lanes. Caiden and Amya sat in the front while Emerson was sitting in the back, sulking like a child about how Caiden always got to go in the front.

"So then Amya, how have you been?" Caiden asked awkwardly.

"I've been great." She said happily smiling… well… radiantly.

"Good, good." Caiden said nodding; only adding to the awkwardness.

"Wow, you really are terrible at small talk." Emerson marvelled and Amya laughed. "So Amya, what's it like living all the way out here, isolated from the world in the country."

"It's not actually as bad as you might think..."

The conversation continued from there as Emerson and Amya chatted away as if they were life-long friends and Caiden just sat there looking dejected, being completely ignored. Caiden was annoyed at how well his brother and Amya were getting along; he knew he shouldn't be, but he was.

They arrived at a Car for Hire place about an hour later and Caiden and Emerson got out and entered the shop.

"Was Amya radiant enough for you then?" Caiden said bitterly and Emerson laughed.

"Come on bro, it's not like I'm taking your girl."

"Yeah, I know but…" Caiden trailed off. "Anyway, our next member is all the way back down to England."

Emerson looked annoyed. "What!?" he demanded. "Why didn't we go to him first?"

"Well, he wasn't in England when we started." Caiden answered.

"What, why? Does he travel a lot?" Emerson asked confused.

"Yeah, yes he does."

"Why, does he work in different countries or something?"

"Ah, well… he's a Jumper." Caiden said as if it explained everything.

"What, a woolly jumper that you wear over a shirt?" Emerson asked stupidly.

"What? No! Wow, you really are thick." Caiden chided.

"No." Emerson bit back. "I'm just… naïve, yes, I'm just a bit naïve." He decided.

"Yeah, sure." Caiden said unconvinced. "Anyway, a Jumper is basically a guy who can teleport, or 'jump' to places as long as he has already been there, or seen where he is going, it's a very rare magic. So basically all in all a pretty handy power."

"Yeah, sounds like he'll be helpful." Emerson agreed. "What's his name?"

"Ah yes, his name, well, I'm pretty sure there's an 'a' in it somewhere…"

"You don't even know his name?" Emerson asked.

"Well… no." Caiden admitted.

"Do you at least know where he's staying, how do you even know he's in England?"

"Well… no, but I know someone who might and I heard that he might have gone to England for a while..."

"Great, so you're basically saying that there's a possibility that he might be staying in England for the time being but you've got no idea where and so we're going to ask one of your friends who might know where he is." Emerson shouted.

"Well, kind of, but he isn't really one of my friends…"

"Great! How are you expecting to ask him then, 'Ummmmm hi dude, I know you're not my friend, I know you don't owe me anything but can you tell me where I can find someone who might or might not be in England? His name? Oh, I don't know that.' What do you think his answer is going to be when you ask him that?"

"He isn't a him…"

"Oh, another woman then."

"No, he's an it…."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't have a gender, the person we're going to see I mean."

"What is it then?"

"It's a terraform." Caiden answered and there was silence for a while.

"What's that?" Emerson prompted.

"Oh, it's cool; it can change its shape."

"Awesome!"

"I know right." Caiden agreed grinning.

"Shut up, we're getting off topic!" Emerson snapped. "Where is this terraform?"

"Oh, I know that, it owns a company in London."

"It owns a company?" Emerson asked confused.

"Uhuh, a company, or so I've heard."

Emerson didn't say anymore after that, until he asked.

"When you say it can shape shift, do you mean into anything?" Emerson asked his brother.

"Ah, well, basically a terraform can transform into any living being as long as it has seen it, it doesn't matter if it's only seen a photo of it, it can transform into whatever living thing it sees. With humans, it can transform to look like people that it has seen, clothes and all. Terraforms store their 'forms' in their brains and they can take out any memory of something and transform into it. So let's say that a terraform met an elephant seven years ago, that memory, or 'form' is being stored in its brain and it can use it any time it wants."

"Wow, does that mean it could turn into me, there could be more than one me?"

"Really, that's the question you ask me?" Caiden asked disbelievingly.

"Uhuh." Emerson confirmed.

Caiden sighed. "Yeah, if it wanted it could make itself look and sound like you, not that any terraform would ever want to commit such a crime."

Emerson's face suddenly turned serious. "If it turned into one of us, a magician I mean, could it use our magic?"

"No." Caiden confirmed. "It could do all the simple things like look like us, sound like us, but it wouldn't be able to use our magic."

"Phew. I was gonna say, that would make them the most powerful magicians that there ever were."

"However, Terraforms themselves do have their own type of magic, apart from shape-shifting, they can do other things."

"Like what?" Emerson said a little worried.

"Oh, well they are special creatures and I heard that some of them are resistant to fire. In their actual form, they can walk up walls I believe."

"What is their normal shape like?"

"They're spiderlike creatures, with four long spindly legs, if I'm correct they're normally quite tall."

"How about the one we're going to see? What's he like? What's his name?"

"Oh yeah, his name is Navaryous Rysk."

"Did I just hear you right?"

"Well, if you heard me say Navaryous Rysk then yes."

"Wow…" Emerson said. "I'm not really sure what to say to that… What can you say to that?"

Caiden thought for a moment and then said. "I don't actually know." He paused again. "Now I think of it, it is quite an odd name…"

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Emerson agreed.

"Although it does kind of suit him." Caiden suggested.

"That's what I'm worried about." Emerson muttered.

They arrived in London four hours later in a small VW Golf that they had hired and that's when they realised how big the city was. After a while of driving down what looked like the same three streets, Emerson asked. "You said it lives in London, do you know where exactly?"

"Well, I'm sure it's on one of these streets…"

"In other words you have no idea." Emerson guessed.

"Well… not really, no. But I'm pretty sure I know around where it lives."

After another 40 minutes of pointless driving Emerson got fed up. "You really don't know where to go do you?"

"I do, we're just not there yet." Caiden exclaimed.

"Of course." Emerson said sarcastically.

"No, honestly, it's just round this corner." Caiden said jokingly as they reached the end of a street and turned left. Straight in front of them was a huge glass building with large blue letters which spelt, Rysk Industries.

"Well what do ya know?" Emerson muttered and Caiden laughed.

They got out of the car and headed towards the building. At the front of the building there were rotating doors which the brothers walked through and they appeared to be in a huge lobby. There were what looked like reception desks straight in front of them and on either side were two large staircases.

Caiden led the way straight towards a desk where a young woman of about possibly 35 or so was sitting. She had an obviously fake grin on her face and greeted them saying.

"Hello and welcome to Rysk Industries, how can I help?"

"We're here to see Mr Rysk." Caiden said confidently.

"Is he expecting you?" The receptionist asked.

"Probably not, but good old Rysky loves surprises."

"I'm sorry, but if you don't have an appointment then I cannot allow you entry."

"Ok, thanks for your help." Caiden said cheerfully and walked off towards the right hand staircase. "I assume his office is upstairs somewhere?" Caiden guessed.

"Excuse me, you aren't allowed up there, I am not authorised to show you where Mr Rysk's office is and you are not allowed to go anywhere without authorisation." The receptionist snapped.

"It's ok, I'm sure I can find it by myself." Caiden assured her completely ignoring her last comment and he continued up the stairs with Emerson right behind.

"Security!" The receptionist shouted.

"Oh, great." Caiden muttered as five large, muscular men wearing black suits came running towards them.

"We could easily take them." Emerson said.

"Yeah, but we don't wanna cause any trouble, just continue walking, if they apprehend us, they'll most likely bring us to Rysk anyway."

Emerson nodded and they both continued climbing the stairs. The guards had just started up the stairs after them but Caiden and Emerson just continued as if nothing was happening.

"Stop!" One of the security guards shouted and Caiden turned around with a surprised look on his face.

"Me?" he asked. "What have I done sir?"

"You aren't allowed up here so I am going to ask you both to come with us. If you fail to do this then we will be made to use force." The guard answered as he pulled out a Taser.

"Ok, thanks for the heads up." Caiden replied happily and he continued up the stairs.

"Sir, stop." The guards shouted and aimed his Taser, Caiden acted as if he hadn't heard, Emerson doing the same. The Taser fired and it lodged itself in Emerson's thigh. He just kept walking as if nothing was happening. Another guard fired at Caiden and he too acted as if nothing had happened. The guards looked at each other, baffled and so one pulled out a stun gun and climbed the stairs quickly to catch up with the brothers.

The guard turned the stun gun on and pressed it forward, towards Caiden, zapping him. His body jerked and his hand shot out and grabbed the stun gun. The guard expected violence and so backed away but Caiden just held out the stun gun and gave it back to him. Both he and his brother yanked out the barbs from the Taser and Caiden looked at the guards and said. "You could have just asked nicely."

Caiden and Emerson both sat in a private interrogation room that was on the top floor of the building and that no-one would have stumbled across unless they would have been looking for it.

"When's Rysk gonna come then?" Emerson asked his brother.

"Well, we've been here for about two hours now so… it probably would've only taken 15 minutes or so to report back to Rysk about us. He would have spent a further half an hour wondering why we were here and then he would've probably waited another hour or so, just to show to us that he is in charge."

"But it doesn't show that he's in charge, it just shows that he's late." Emerson protested.

Caiden smiled. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it?"

They sat in silence for a few minutes until they heard footsteps and the door was opened to reveal two security guards, both holding compact assault rifles. Behind them was Navaryous Rysk. It walked, or rather skittered in after them. It was just like Caiden had described, very tall with four long spindly legs, spiderlike was the perfect word for it.

"Caiden Tate." It said its voice was low and raspy.

"Navaryous Rysk." Caiden replied.

"Why are you here?" Rysk asked bluntly.

"Straight to the point I see, that's what I like about you Navaryous, no nonsense. You haven't changed a bit since I last saw you."

Navaryous didn't even acknowledge his comment he just repeated his question. "Why are you here?"

This time Caiden answered his question. "I just came to ask you a simple favour, that's all."

"You're asking me for a favour? After last time?" Rysk asked his raspy voice straining.

Caiden grimaced, apparently last time wasn't a fond memory. "Last time wasn't really my fault." Caiden tried.

"Am I missing something? I feel like I'm missing something." Emerson said, he had been silent for so long that Caiden had almost forgotten that he was there. This seemed to be the first time Navaryous had actually noticed Emerson.

"I assume this is your infamous little brother."

"Um, yeah. Navaryous, this is Emerson."

"Hi there." Emerson said cheerfully and he turned to his brother. "What exactly are you talking about, what happened last time?"

"Oh yes, last time." Caiden started awkwardly. "Well, you know I said me and Navaryous aren't really friends, well we used to be, well not really friends, but comrades, or partners. Anyway, we used to do missions together, mercenary work, that kind of thing. Well, there was this one thing, we were being paid to do something that was kind of… against the law. You see our job was to steal something for someone, not a hard job just getting in, stealing the heavily guarded object and leaving. Back then, we'd done quite a few jobs like that, we were kind of notorious and so the authorities were always on high alert for us. It became apparent that this time, the authorities had been tipped off about our 'job' so we made it in, but when we were 'leaving', there seemed to be a large number of people waiting for us."

"What happened next?" Emerson asked as Navaryous' face got more and more annoyed.

"Well, I'd love to say there was a huge battle and we won, but, well…"

"Well?" Emerson prompted.

"I kind of ran away and left Navaryous there to get arrested. It was put in prison for multiple crimes and it only got out, what was it, about a year ago. You wouldn't be surprised that that was when I stopped doing illegal mercenary work."

"Ah, so I guess there isn't a chance at all that you're going to agree to help us is there?" Emerson said in despair, directing it at Navaryous. "Way to go bro."

"It depends on what you want." Navaryous answered much to their surprise.

"What?" Caiden asked amazed. "Seriously, you might help us?"

"Don't get your hopes up, but it is a possibility."

"Wow, I really did not expect the conversation to go like this at all." Emerson said disbelievingly.

"Not helping." Caiden muttered.

"Yeah but it's true."

Caiden was going to reply but he was interrupted by Navaryous' raspy voice. "If you'll stop arguing, I'll tell you why I might give you the information you want."

"Ok." Caiden agreed. "Wait how do you know that its information we want?"

"I have my sources." It answered mysteriously.

"You mean you heard us when we were talking earlier?" Caiden guessed.

"Yes." It answered bluntly.

"Oh, so I assume you know what information."

"I do." Navaryous replied and Caiden waited for it to say more, but it stayed silent.

"Do you know where the jumper is staying?" Caiden prompted.

"I do."

"Are you gonna tell us where?" Emerson asked.

Navaryous thought for a while and there was silence.

"I have a preposition." It said finally.

"You do?" Caiden asked suddenly hopeful.

"I need you to do something for me…"

**A/N: So there was Amya, where'd she go? Also, there's Rysk, interesting character he is. What does he want our daring heroes to do though? You'll meet yet another person in the next chapter, he's awesome, not someone who you'd expect though. Please (and I mean please) review, whatever opinion you have, write it down, and in fact, if you want, read more. More chapters up, more coming, thanks… well done for getting this far.**

**Mangobean.**


	6. Chapter 5-Meeting Jeremy

**Chapter 5**

"Can you believe he wants us to do this?" Emerson asked his brother as they drove through the streets of London.

"It's an it, and yes I kind of can. I made him go to jail for ages, remember."

"Oh yeah. Damn you and your past mistakes!" Emerson said, only half joking. "Wait, do you know where Amya went, I'm pretty sure she stopped following us before we got into Rysk Industries."

"I dunno. She probably got held up in traffic or something." Caiden said unconvincingly.

"Yeah, probably." Emerson said unconvinced. "Anyway, we have other things to worry about, like how the heck Rysk is expecting us to do what he asked!"

"Yeah, like that." Caiden agreed.

"Do we have a plan?" Emerson asked fearing the worst.

"Sadly, yes." Caiden replied forlornly and Emerson's shoulders slumped.

"Damn that's just what they'll be expecting."

"I know, I tried my hardest not to come up with one, but it just forced itself my mind, and now I can't forget it."

"I hate it when that happens."

"I know, oh well, I guess we'll have to use the plan."

"What is the plan?"

"Oh, just to get in, somehow, steal what we need, then get out using a lot of brute force." Caiden explained.

"So pretty much what we would have done anyway."

Caiden thought for a second. "Oh yeah, it is, isn't it. Awesome."

They continued driving in silence until Emerson asked. "Do you think that we have even the slightest chance of retrieving this 'object'?"

Caiden thought for a moment and then replied. "Nope, we're stuffed."

"Well aren't you optimistic." Emerson murmured.

"Do you think we have a chance?" Caiden asked expectantly.

"Well, no. But that's not the point." Emerson insisted.

"What is the point?"

Emerson was about to answer, but then frowned. "I'm not sure…" He paused and started to say more but stopped and there was silence for a while with Emerson in deep concentration trying to think of an answer. He kept looking as if he was about to say something, but then frowning to himself and going back to thinking.

After a while Caiden got bored of only the constant hum of the engine and so decided to start up an entirely new conversation.

"I wonder if Rysk would know anything about Maelicen Villainous." He speculated and made Emerson jump.

"Huh, sorry?" Emerson asked, having been interrupted from his concentration.

"I said, I wonder if Rysk knows anything about Maelicen Villainous. You know the guy who we're up against." Caiden prompted.

"Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, he might have some useful information. I'd really love to know what kind of magic that guy uses."

"Yeah, well if Rysk doesn't know then I'm sure you'll find out first hand."

"What a cheerful thought." Emerson said sarcastically and Caiden smiled. "I've got it!" Emerson said triumphantly.

"I'm sorry what?" Caiden asked confused.

"I realised what the point was."

"What do you…" Caiden started and then realised. "Oh, right, you're still hung up on that."

Emerson ignored his brother's comment. "I see what I meant now."

"Please, enlighten me?"

"Well basically, the point was that even though I have no faith in us at all, neither do you and you're supposed to be the older brother who's all optimistic and stuff." Emerson said, pleased with himself, however Caiden looked less pleased.

"That's it." Caiden said disappointed.

"That's it." Emerson agreed happily.

"You must be joking."

Emerson frowned, "No, why would I be joking?"

Caiden glared at him.

"Honestly, why would I be joking?" Emerson asked genuinely confused.

Caiden continued to stare at his brother. "You really have no idea do you?"

"No." Emerson insisted.

"I had no idea you were so…"

"Naïve?" Emerson suggested.

"I was gonna say ignorant, but I guess naïve works too."

"Yeah…" Emerson said in agreement but then realised what his brother said. "Wait hey!"

"What?" Caiden asked in mock innocence.

"I'm not ignorant."

"No, of course not." Caiden agreed trying not to laugh.

"I thought not." Emerson said finally satisfied.

Caiden's mind began to drift, he started to wonder about how they were going to even 'acquire' this 'object that Rysk demanded they get, let alone how they were going to take down Villainous and his gang. Caiden was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the next turning was where they were supposed to go.

"Caiden." Emerson said trying to jolt his brother back to reality, but he got no response. "Caiden!" he said much more forcefully.

"Huh? What?"

"Turn right!"

"Huh?"

"TURN RIGHT!"

The car jerked sideways as Caiden was ripped back to reality. The car skidded as it turned and they were still for a moment. Caiden put on the gas, and they sped forward down the road.

"This is it." Caiden exclaimed. "We're here."

"Yay." Emerson said with mock enthusiasm.

The little car trundled down the street and Caiden prepared to turn left. As the car turned, Emerson's eyes widened. In front of them was a different world. They'd just been driving down London streets, driving past grotty estates and now right in front of them was a castle. It was literally a medieval, stone castle. It had four huge stone towers at each corner which was so stereotypical it almost made Caiden laugh, he could almost imagine a captured princess at the top crying out for help and an evil dragon flying around the top of the castle, he smiled at the thought. It towered over them, as if to say, I'm bigger than you so don't try anything stupid, in a kind of overweight prison guard way.

"Right, well I guess we're reached our destination." Caiden said sheepishly.

"Yay." Emerson repeated.

They parked the car by the roadside a few streets from the castle so as to be careful. The brothers started down the streets towards the castle until after about five hundred meters Caiden stopped so suddenly that Emerson continued walking alone for a while without noticing. Emerson turned to his right to ask his brother something and realised he wasn't there. He turned to look behind him and saw Caiden standing about fifty yards behind him deep in thought.

"We've forgotten something haven't we?" Emerson guessed.

"We have." Caiden confirmed regretfully.

Emerson waited for him to say more, but Caiden continued thinking to himself quietly.

"What…" Emerson prompted, but he still got no answer. "What?!" Emerson said much louder.

"Oh, right. Well, our great dilemma is… how the heck are we planning to get inside? I mean, it's a freakin' castle, I expect it'll have pretty amazing defences. It's not like we're gonna be able to walk in through the front gate?"

"Well, you never know." Emerson joked. "If we pretended to be pizza delivery guys…" Caiden looked at his younger brother humourlessly but that did nothing to deter him. "Maybe if we perfected Indian accents and came in with takeaways, or…"

"Emerson." Caiden interrupted.

"Uhuh?"

"Shut up." He said bluntly.

"Ok." Emerson said happily.

Emerson stood silently while Caiden went through every scenario in his mind.

"Ok, basically we have literally no chance at all of getting inside the castle, let alone finding and stealing this 'object' and then escaping with our lives."

"Great, so what are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna mug a pizza guy." Caiden decided, and Emerson grinned mischievously.

Their target was a spotty teenager of about seventeen years. He carried his deliveries around on his moped which could only go up to about thirty five miles per hour, but he still loved it. The name on his badge said Jeremy. Jeremy was taking his latest delivery down a street to the house that ordered it. He was pleased with himself, the order had been placed just twenty minutes ago and he was almost there, a record time. As he slowly, but steadily, so as not to knock the pizza off his moped, drove down the street, he noticed a car.

The car was a normal, VW Golf, so why did it make Jeremy suspicious? Probably because it was driving, steadily towards him on his side of the road. He figured it must be about to turn onto the right side of the road so he continued going, however, it didn't budge.

"We're going to hit him?" Emerson said disbelieving inside the car which was slowly gaining the ground towards Jeremy and was only about six hundred meters away.

"Uhuh." Caiden confirmed.

"Are you mad?" Caiden thought for a moment. "Yes." He said simply. "But I don't see what that has to do with this."

"What if he's hurt? What if he breaks his neck or something, we could kill him!"

Caiden looked at him as if he was stupid. "We're both going below fifteen miles an hour."

"But it's a collision, that makes it more powerful."

They were still heading for each other, the space between them only one hundred meters now.

"Caiden stop being ridiculous, normally you're the sensible one!"

"Ok." Caiden said finally, and the car stopped.

"What do we do now?" Emerson asked.

Jeremy, having noticed that they'd stopped, continued driving and as he neared the car he turned to go past it. Just as he was level with the front of the car, the door swung open and crashed into him and he was knocked backwards off his moped. He landed hard on the road, his helmet protecting his head from crashing against the concrete, but the impact still sent jolts through his body.

His elbows had crashed hard against the ground and he had nasty bruises and cuts everywhere but there was no lasting damage. He opened his eyes to see two young men getting out of the van and walk towards him.

"Oops." He heard one of them say. "I didn't mean to open the door so hard."

The man who opened the door walked up to Jeremy slowly.

"Do you think he's dead?" Emerson wondered and Caiden nudged Jeremy with his foot and Jeremy yelped.

"He's alive." Emerson stated.

"What's your name?" Caiden asked.

"Jemy" the Jeremy muttered

"What?"

"He said Jeremy." Emerson translated.

"Whayayowan?"

"Sorry?" Caiden asked confused.

"What do you want?" Jeremy corrected.

Caiden looked confused.

"He's asking why we knocked him off his moped." Emerson explained.

"Oh, that. Well we need you to take your clothes off." Caiden explained and Emerson face palmed.

Jeremy frowned. "Are you asking me to strip for you?"

"What? No." Caiden said confused and he looked at Emerson who had his head in his hands and was pretending to cry.

"No." Caiden said again. "We just need your clothes and moped. Oh, and the pizza."

"Why?" Jeremy asked, very confused.

"You don't need to know."

"Why would I want to? What's in it for me?"

"We'll give them back, apart from the pizza obviously, you'd have to stay here until we come back."

"Alone in London at night, in just my underwear and shoes."

"Actually we kind of need your shoes as well." Caiden said in defeat.

"We could take him in the car; he could stay there while we go in and get it." Emerson suggested and Caiden glared at him.

Caiden looked back at Jeremy. "Can you excuse my brother and I while confer for a minute?"

"Do I have any choice?" Jeremy asked.

"None at all, I was just being polite."

"Ok, well I'll just be lying on the ground over here; I'm in quite a bit of pain so you can expect me not to move anyway."

"Many thanks." Caiden said and dragged his brother back towards the car.

"We are not taking this unarmed teenager into a potentially violent and explosive war zone."

"We'll leave him with the car; he could look after it for us."

"You trust this guy?" Caiden asked suspiciously.

"Caiden, he's seventeen or something, he's easily influenced. If we show he magic, we'll instantly become his idols."

"I'm pretty sure you're talking about seven year olds."

Emerson's face screwed up. "Damn. What age is seventeen again?"

"He's a teen, on the border of becoming an adult."

Emerson continued to look confused. "The age you start drinking at."

"Oh, right. Yeah, he's never going to agree to this. How are we going to do this then?"

Caiden thought for a moment. "I don't want to have to take him out, but that could be the only option."

"Unless…" Emerson started, then turned and started walking towards Jeremy.

"What?" Caiden asked but Emerson continued walking towards Jeremy. "Emerson, unless what?"

As Emerson got closer to Jeremy, the youth looked up.

"Jeremy, you said that you wouldn't get anything from it, what would you like in exchange?"

Jeremy seemed to perk up when Emerson said this.

"What could you give me?" he asked doubtfully.

"You'd be surprised." Caiden chipped in.

"Do you have money?"

"Hmmmmm… that seems to be the only thing."

"That's the only thing I could think of really…"

"Really?" Emerson asked.

"Yeah, sorry. Wait, what's happened to your hand?" Jeremy asked, indicating Caiden who had subconsciously set his hand alight. Caiden noticed and shook it out.

"What was that? Your hand was on fire!" Jeremy shouted, stepping quickly away from them.

"No it wasn't." Caiden tried.

"It was, I saw it with my own eyes. How did you do that? Who are you?"

"Ok, I'm Caiden Tate, this is my brother Emerson. We're doing some work for the government, kind of."

"That doesn't explain… that." Jeremy shouted.

"Calm down, stop shouting. Ok, we really need what you're wearing, please Jeremy?"

"Do you have, like powers, superpowers?"

"No, we're just normal people, what you saw was a trick of the light."

"You are not normal, stop lying to me!" Jeremy demanded.

"Calm down, ok. Look." Caiden said and took his hand out in front of him. A spark came from his hand and suddenly it was engulfed in flame. Caiden looked up at Jeremy who was standing there, his mouth open.

"Jeremy, are you ok?" Caiden asked worried.

"What, yeah." Jeremy said, and sighed. "That's awesome."

"So can you help us?"

"Actually, yes. I realised I'm gonna get fired after this, so I'm gonna need a new job."

"That's not…" Caiden started.

"Yes, that is something we can do." Emerson interjected.

"It is?" Caiden asked confused.

"Yes, it is." Emerson confirmed completely sure.

"Ok, I guess we can get you a new job, are you in?"

"I'm in." Jeremy agreed.

There was an awkward silence for a while.

"Do you want to get changed in the car?" Caiden suggested.

"What am I gonna change into?" Jeremy asked.

"Ah, yeah. That's a good question. Emerson any ideas?"

"Well, I'm not gonna wear the pizza guy stuff. So you can swap clothes."

"Yeah, and I'm not wearing a suit." Jeremy decided and Emerson glared at him"

"Fine." Caiden said unhappily and started towards the car.

Fifteen minutes later, Caiden was dressed like a pizza delivery boy, and Jeremy was dressed in Caiden's clothes. They had somehow managed to fit the moped into the boot of the car and were now heading back to the castle. Jeremy was sitting in the back and the brothers were in the front.

"How the heck are you expecting us to get Jeremy a job?" Caiden asked Emerson angrily but quietly.

"Oh, I have an idea." Emerson said happily.

"What?" Caiden prompted.

"Oh, you'll have to wait for my brilliance, I'm not gonna tell you now. I'm gonna let the tension build and reveal it at the last second."

"I hate you." Caiden complained.

"You've told me, many times."

"Well I'm just trying to get the point across."

"Oh, it's ok, you have, you really have."

They drove down the street until they got almost to the end, Caiden pulled onto the side and parked. They got out and opened the back to let out Jeremy. Jeremy and Emerson stood there while Caiden took the moped out the boot and got on along with the pizza, which was now stone cold and only half there because Jeremy had got hungry, still on the back.

"Emerson, come a bit behind me, make sure no-one sees you. From there, you know what to do. Jeremy, stay back here with the car, if anything bad happens, get out of here, there's no point in you getting killed too." Caiden said, and with that he sped away.

"I guess I might as well go now as well, see ya mate." Emerson said and started trudging off after his brother.

That left Jeremy standing with the car; he shrugged, opened the driver's seat door and got in.

Caiden pulled up outside the castle, and parked the moped by the side of the road. He got off, took the pizza and made his way towards the castle. As he reached the huge set off doors at the front of the castle he noticed that there was no doorbell. He banged his fist on the door and waited.

After a while, he heard some footsteps coming closer. He heard someone reach the door and pull across a bolt. The door swung open and a man in a suit stood there, he reminded Caiden of a butler, yeah, he decided he must be the butler.

"Hello." the butler said.

"Hi." Caiden said. "I'm here to deliver some pizza."

"You have the wrong place." The butler said and started to close the door but Caiden put his hand out to stop it.

"Ummm, no. This was definitely the address I was given." Caiden insisted.

"No-one has ordered pizza from this location."

"They must have."

"The owners of this property do not order pizza, we never order pizza, so thank you, but you have the wrong property." He said more forcefully.

"No, I am certain this is the place, I was told that it was at the castle, how many castles do you think there are around here?"

"I can promise you, this is the wrong place!" the butler's face turned to a frown. "You're a bit old for a delivery boy aren't you?"

"Well… yes. You know what, I'm just gonna tell you now, I'm not a delivery guy. I'm not here to deliver you pizza."

"Why are you here?" the butler asked suspiciously.

"I need to get inside."

"I'm sorry, I can't allow you to come in."

"I know." Caiden said and the butler was hit in the chest by a ball of energy. He was flung backwards, onto the floor, he didn't get up. Emerson walked around Caiden and through the doors, Caiden followed. Through the door was a huge room with grand lights hanging from the ceiling. There were dozens of doors leading from the room to the rest of the castle.

"Do we have any clue where what we're looking for is?" Emerson asked.

"Nope, none at all."

"So what's our plan of action?"

"I'm not sure, we're in, to be honest, I didn't think we'd get this far."

"Hmmm, me neither." Emerson agreed and just as he said that, men started streaming through the doors all around them. More and more kept coming until there were about fifty men surrounding them, all armed. Out of the door in front of them walked another man of perhaps mid-fifties. He was dressed in an impeccable suit and had dark grey, tightly cropped hair and alarming grey eyes.

"Caiden Tate, Emerson." The man said addressing the brothers, his voice was deep and smooth. "My name is Potiphus Laire, and it seems that you've broken into my castle, knocked out my butler, and are now looking for a very expensive and valuable item, that has great sentimental value to me, to steal."

"To be fair, we didn't know that it had sentimental value, and you know, if you don't like us stealing it, then you should have a word with the person who told us to steal it. I'll tell you who it was if you let us go?" Emerson offered.

"I know who it was, it was Navaryous Rysk." Laire said.

"Oh." Emerson said awkwardly. "Right. Are you still gonna let us go?"

"Nope, not even a little bit." Laire answered grinning.

**A/N: Isn't Jeremy just so loveable! Also, what's going to happen next? Well I know, I've already written it, but do you? The next chapters really short and won't really be relevant at all for the moment but I'm hoping to sometime write other books for this series or something, which will probably include a prequel or something. Please review! I'd really love it if you could, read on if you want to find out what will happen next, where the heck is Amya?! Other chapters are up, more coming, thanks.**

**Mangobean.**


	7. Chapter 6-The Truth About Evil

**Chapter 6**

"How the heck can you not let someone go even a little bit? It doesn't make sense. You can't… it's impossible for you to let someone go a little bit, so how can you not let someone go a little bit?" Emerson ranted to his brother as they sat alone in a cell in the castle dungeons.

"That's what you're annoyed about?" Caiden asked baffled.

"Yeah." Emerson replied as if it was obvious.

The two had been brought down to the castle dungeons and chucked in the cell only a minute ago and there had been silence until Emerson had started this ridiculous rant. Of course the cell was magically bound, they didn't know how, they just knew that it was. The cell itself was no bigger than the back of their van was; that being about five by eight meters.

"Well, to answer your dilemma…" Caiden began. "He was making a joke you idiot!" Caiden snapped.

"Ok, calm down. Just 'cause I didn't know doesn't mean you have to shout at me, geeze."

Caiden sighed. "Wow you're so annoying."

"Thank you, I try my best." Emerson said smugly.

They sat in silence for a while, probably only two minutes but to them felt like half an hour.

"You see, I never thought this castle could get anymore stereotypical, and then we were brought down here, to the castle dungeons. I mean, that's just ridiculous, I bet this Potiphus Laire guy, if he is the owner, just gave his decorators a picture of Camelot and said: 'You see this? This is exactly what I want it to look like.'

"Also, did you see all of those men, I'm pretty sure they must have been his private army or something." Caiden speculated.

"Yeah, rich bastard." Emerson agreed. "Although a great choice in suit, must have an eye for good clothes."

Caiden rolled his eyes at this comment. "I bet you'd complement anyone if they were wearing a good suit… you never know, you might even complement me?"

"You, nah, that's not happening."

Emerson thought for a while and then said worriedly. "Oh crap, I wonder what happened to Jeremy, if they knew pretty much everything about us, I bet they know about him."

"He's a bright kid; he probably drove off the second we were out of sight."

"I dunno, he seemed alright, I don't think he'd just steal the car, just like that. Anyway, we still owe him a job."

Caiden glared at his brother. "You still haven't told me what job."

"Nope, I haven't, and I'm not going to, at least until we get out of here." Emerson decided. "How do you think he got this thing that's dampening our magic, I haven't seen anything like it before." Emerson asked.

"Well, he's rich obviously; people can do a lot with money, especially ambitious people."

"And crazy people." Emerson added.

"Ambitious and crazy aren't too different." Caiden muttered.

They heard footsteps outside the cell. They heard someone reach the door, locks clicked open and the door swung open to reveal a dozen guards armed with compact assault rifles. The brothers were ushered forward and handcuffs were clicked onto their wrists, their magic was still bound. Caiden noticed but said nothing.

"Master Laire will see you now." One of the guards said.

"I guessed." Emerson muttered quietly.

"I'm sorry?" the guard asked.

"Oh, I was just marvelling at how wonderfully old Potiphus keeps his guests." Emerson said innocently and the guard glared at him.

"You won't feel so smug when 'old Potiphus' has you on your knees, begging for him to kill you."

"He can do his worst." Emerson said defiantly and the guard shrugged and gestured for them to follow.

They began following and immediately the guards surrounded them and walked in step. They were led up stone steps and into a corridor. Ahead of them, coming off the corridor were many doorways, however the doors were closed so whatever was inside was cut off from their view. They were led straight down the corridor to the end and through a door. They entered the huge room that they had been apprehended in just a few hours before. They were now led through another doorway and up more stairs.

"This is getting silly." Emerson muttered quietly to himself and Caiden smiled.

They finally reached a sturdy stone door that looked overly secure. The guard banged his fist against the door and a voice from inside replied. "Come in." The door was opened and inside Potiphus Laire sat at his desk.

"Mr Tate, I trust your stay has been pleasant." Laire said sarcastically.

"Not in the slightest." Caiden replied bluntly and Laire laughed.

"Good." He said. "Now before we get to the unpleasantness, I must say, coming here was a grave mistake."

"How so?" Caiden asked.

"I shall explain. You see I once had a brother, he was a younger brother, the age gap was perhaps around yours I presume." He said indicating the brothers in front of him. "He was my only sibling and I loved him dearly, however he wasn't my only family, no I had parents too. One day, my parents were on a plane, they were going on holiday. You see it was their thirtieth wedding anniversary; I was about eleven at the time. My parents were on a plane to Paris where they were going to stay for a few weeks and so my brother and I were staying with our grandfather, he was the only other family I had. Something happened on the plane, I think the pilot was drunk or something and it crashed, there were no survivors."

"I am sorry for your loss." Caiden said gravely.

"Not as much as you will be." Laire said and something in his voice told Caiden he wasn't lying.

"But I don't see what this has to do with me." Caiden insisted.

"I'm getting to that part." Laire snapped and Caiden didn't say more. "I was distraught, however I had to keep it together, I had a little brother. He didn't have a clue what had happened, he didn't understand what had happened, he kept asking when our parents were coming home. A few years later, our grandfather past away, cancer, he was eighty seven, he didn't stand a chance. So it was just me and my brother, moving from children's home, to children's home. That was when we discovered our magic. I'm a psychic; I can see the future, have visions that kind of thing. My brother, well, it's complicated. Thirty years or so later we'd grown up, drifted apart. I was successful, bringing in cash, I worked as a banker, damn good at my job too, also I'd inherited most of the family fortune, and so I wasn't short of money. My brother though, he was doing some work for the Guild, he worked with you."

"Julian Laire, I thought I knew that name, he was my partner back then." Caiden guessed.

"Yes, Julian."

"But isn't he dead, he died… oh, right." Caiden realised.

"Anyway, I might as well finish. You were doing a mission together, just a standard mission, no different from normal. From what I was told, you escaped, leaving Julian to die, the facility blew up with my little brother still inside. Where were you, his partner! You were escaping, alone, you didn't give a crap about my brother!" Potiphus shouted, standing up from his desk violently, and he lunged for Caiden enraged by the memory.

"Wait." Caiden tried but Potiphus grabbed his neck with his huge hand and shoved him back against the wall. Immediately Emerson reacted. He kicked Potiphus' leg and knocked him off balance, Potiphus let go of Caiden and he fell to the ground gasping for air. Before Emerson could do anything else he was smashed in the side of the head by a fist and the guards were on him.

"Stop." Caiden shouted and Potiphus called them off, Emerson didn't get up.

"Wait, I thought Julian was already dead, it was only after when I realised that he was still alive, and by then it was too late.

Laire's expression changed, he laughed. "You see the thing is, my brother Julian, he wasn't killed in the explosion. He was rescued."

"What? By whom? The Guild?"

"No, it wasn't the Guild; they didn't lift a finger to see if he was alive; they didn't even look for his body."

"They thought it would be impossible for anyone to survive that explosion; they couldn't find a body." Caiden insisted but Potiphus shrugged. "Who was it that saved him?" Caiden continued.

"There was a gang back then, you might have heard of them, they're called the Bloody Murderers."

"No." Caiden said as the realisation dawned upon him.

"They found Julian alive, but barely. They healed him and cared for him until he got back to full strength."

"No, that's a lie, you're lying."

"At this time, the Bloody Murderers only had four members, they needed a fifth, a leader, and Julian fitted the part perfectly. Julian changed his name, changed a lot about himself, and he donned a mask. He changed his name to a name that is now feared by all who have heard it, he became a legend. He became Maelicen Villainous."

**A/N: As I said, pretty irrelevant, but still, I felt like it. Next chapter more things happen, don't worry. Where's Amya?! Thanks for reading, please review, you can read on if you want. I seriously commend you for getting this far. Other chapters are up, more coming. Thanks a lot.**

**Mangobean.**


	8. Chapter 7-Exploding Cars

**Chapter 7**

Caiden and Emerson had been led back to their cells and the guards had explained to Emerson everything that had occurred while he was unconscious because Caiden wouldn't talk to him. The brothers were now both sitting, silently in their cold, stone cell. Emerson was scared to break the silence because he knew Caiden was angry and he wanted to give him some space. Caiden hadn't acted like this since the death of their parents, twelve years ago, they had died in a car crash and for weeks afterwards, Caiden acted detached, barely spoke and not once smiled or laughed. Emerson was determined not to let that happen again, he had to get his brother talking.

"So, Julian had…" Emerson started.

"Maelicen, his name is Maelicen." Caiden corrected, well at least he was talking.

"Ok, Maelicen, what magic does he use?"

"For years he was my partner, not once did he use magic."

"Does he have magic?"

"Oh yeah, he has magic, he's always had magic. He just always seemed afraid to use it."

"Right, that is not a good sign." Emerson said and Caiden grunted.

There was complete silence apart from the far away sounds of outside the cell and the slow, calculated breathing of the brothers.

"We have to get out of here." Caiden said finally. "We have to stop Villainous."

"Yeah, but how exactly are we going to manage that?" Emerson asked doubtfully.

"Well, have you noticed there aren't actually any guards outside our cell, there are bound to be others throughout the castle, but none directly here."

Emerson caught on. "Laire obviously doesn't think we'll try to escape."

"Or doesn't think we're capable." Caiden concluded.

"Still, how are we going to escape, we don't have our magic and it's not like we can bust our way out of here."

"No, we don't have magic, but if we look for whatever's dampening our magic, then we could dismantle it?" Caiden speculated.

"Or, I could just use the keys?" said a voice from outside. They looked up to see Amya Radiant standing outside their cell with the keys in her hand.

"What? How?" Caiden asked baffled.

"There goes my brother, infamous for his amazing language skills!" Emerson exclaimed dramatically and Caiden scowled, which made Amya laugh.

"Well, you have your friend Jeremy to thank for this."

"What? How?" Caiden repeated, equally baffled.

"I had had to go home to fetch something more, and so I called your phone to ask you where you were and Jeremy picked up…"

"I knew I'd left it." Caiden said angrily.

"If you'd let me finish."

"Sorry."

"After a lot of explaining; I told him I was a friend of yours. So he told me where you were and I came to your rescue."

"How did you get in?" Emerson asked doubtfully and Amya glared at him.

"I wasn't chosen by your brother for nothing you know, I know a few tricks." At that moment, Amya triumphed with the lock, the door swung open and heavily armed guards began to file into the room.

"Oh, crap." Caiden said and he immediately his hand lit up.

Amya swung around and sent a strong gust of air that swept most of the guards off their feet, crashing into their friends. Emerson barrelled forward crashing through some of the guards to make a path through the middle and Amya and Caiden followed, Caiden throwing a fireball behind him to deter anyone from following. He showed his other fireball to the guards around him and they didn't come any closer. They clambered to the top of the stairs and Amya took the lead.

"I know where to go; you'd just get us lost." She said and Emerson grumbled but let her lead them on.

Amya led them down a corridor, through some other doors and finally they found themselves in the main room.

"Uh." Emerson said in despair as they saw they guards, there were approximately forty of them, with their compact assault rifles trained on the intruders. Potiphus Laire stood behind them with a wide grin on his face.

"Hello Amya." He said, and she rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad that you could join us. Would you all like to sit down." As he said that a large table was brought in and placed in the middle of the room, the four places had already been set and the food on the table.

"Well at least we won't have to worry about having tea." Emerson said cheerfully and Laire's grin widened, he gestured for them to sit down, but Caiden wasn't looking at him, he was looking behind him at Jeremy who was sitting in the driver's seat of the van and speeding towards them.

The beautiful woman had gone in to rescue Caiden and Emerson, so Jeremy had been left alone, with the car once more. He'd been baffled when a phone had started to ring in the car; he thought both Emerson and Caiden had taken their phones, but apparently not. He'd picked up out of curiosity, with no idea at whom it could be, he just did it out of impulse. So after Amya had explained, Jeremy had told her where they were, and what was happening. Amya had arrived shortly after and immediately gone into the castle to rescue them.

After that Jeremy just decided to stay with the car and wait, they would be back soon, he was sure of it. It was only when he saw the armed men come in and block their only exit that he got worried. He could count about twenty from where he was, but he was certain that there would be more. Still, he thought, Emerson and Caiden have magic, Amya too probably, they could take out however many guards there were.

Then he got his first glimpse at what the men where armed with MK14s, he'd played enough Call of Duty to know that if these men opened fire, the victims would be ripped apart. They wouldn't stand a chance; Jeremy had to help, but how. He noticed the keys still in the ignition and suddenly an idea sprung to mind, it was stupid, but it might just work.

He glanced over at the castle, inside Caiden, Emerson and Amya had entered the main room and been confronted by the guards. He knew what he had to do. Jeremy adjusted the seat; he opened the door slightly and left it as it was. He glanced up; his friend's faces had fallen, they knew they were dead. He turned the key and the car sped forward.

Jeremy saw Caiden look up, into his eyes. His expression was one of disbelief, horror and respect, Jeremy gave him a grim smile in response. Quickly Emerson and Amya too, noticed the vehicle speeding towards them and Emerson cried out for him to stop. Laire and his guards turned, but did not expect what they saw, a teenager, who couldn't be over eighteen speeding towards them in a VW Golf.

The explosion was devastating; Laire and the guards were blown forwards and immediately knocked unconscious. Amya and the brothers flew backwards. Most of the wall where the car had crashed into had been blown to smithereens. No-one got up.

Caiden's ears were still ringing, he'd just been lying there, Amya and Emerson were unconscious he knew that, but he'd stayed conscious. He felt paralysed, he couldn't move, couldn't get up. He couldn't think; all he knew was that Jeremy had saved them. He'd crashed the car to save them, with him still inside.

Caiden was certain he would be dead; he didn't want to go and check, he didn't want to see the corpse of the teen whose life he ruined. He was paralysed, paralysed with fear.

Finally he got up, he needed to make sure, he had to see. He stumbled over to the wreckage that was once a car, but he didn't care about that. He heard coughing, at least he thought he did, he turned, no-one else had stirred. His mind must be playing tricks, after an explosion like that, he wasn't surprised.

He leant on the empty husk, which was still boiling hot, but of course it didn't affect him. He studied his surroundings; he didn't see what he needed to see. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder; he grabbed the arm and spun his body round, twisting the arm behind the victims back. He heard a yelp, not of a man, but a teen.

"Jeremy?" he asked.

"Ummmm, hi?" The boy replied sheepishly and Caiden pulled him into a hug.

"How the heck?!"

"Yeah, sorry about your car."

"Technically it's just hired. No, how did you survive?" Caiden demanded.

"I kind of jumped out before the impact…" Jeremy said wincing and Caiden noticed blood on his arms and legs, obviously from a bad scrape.

"Wow, man that's really impressive, I thought you were; you know…" Caiden said awkwardly.

"I didn't think you would've cared." Jeremy said quietly.

"Of course I care, I was terrified. I thought I'd practically killed a teenager." Caiden said and Jeremy grinned slightly. There was a thud and a lot of groaning and they heard a gasp as Emerson tried to get up, but stumbled into a parked car.

"We'd better go and help my inept brother." Caiden said jokingly and he walked slowly and steadily to where Emerson was sprawled out on the car.

Caiden prodded him and his body shuddered but he stayed unconscious. Amya stirred and muttered something, Jeremy knelt down next to her to see if she was awake, her eyes shot open and Jeremy jumped to his feet in surprise.

"What happened?" Amya demanded.

"Oh, not much…" Caiden started. "Jeremy just did something incredibly reckless and stupid to save us…"

"He crashed the car." Amya interrupted in disbelief.

"He crashed the car all right." Caiden confirmed. "The explosion knocked us all unconscious, Emerson's still out cold." Amya smiled at that and held out her for Caiden to help her up, he obliged. She brushed herself off and walked over to the unconscious Emerson, she seemed almost completely recovered but Caiden could tell she was still quite shocked; she was just hiding it well.

Amya prodded Emerson a few times with her foot, but he didn't stir, he just lay there, face down on the ground, unmoving.

"Maybe he's dead?" Jeremy said, only half joking. Caiden didn't seem to find that too funny and he knelt down next to his brother.

"Emerson?" Caiden asked hopefully, worry having crept into his voice. "Emerson?!" he repeated louder and he rolled his brother over. Amya gasped, shocked at what she saw and Jeremy stood there, paralysed in place. Emerson Tate was laying in a huge pool of his own blood with a piece of shrapnel the size of his hand, from the explosion, sticking out of his chest.

It had taken a five minute long phone call and a further ten minutes of explaining that they didn't have a bomb until they finally persuaded the police that they weren't terrorists. Meanwhile Emerson had been whisked away by an ambulance with Amya to accompany him because apparently it was less likely for a fully grown woman to be a terrorist threat than a seventeen year old boy.

After what felt like hours of questions, Caiden and Jeremy were driven to the hospital where Emerson had been taken. The journey wasn't long and they arrived about twenty minutes later. Caiden seemed very different to before the incident; he'd obviously been affected by his brother's injury. He was much quieter, sort of solemn, as if he was thinking about something. Caiden rushed through the entrance doors, Jeremy desperately trying to keep up.

"Emerson Tate, where's his room?" Caiden asked the receptionist, who looked up from her magazine.

"Huh?" she asked startled.

"Where's Emerson Tate staying?" Caiden asked again more forcefully.

"Who are you?"

"I'm his brother, I need to see him!"

"How am I supposed to believe you?" the receptionist asked, getting frustrated.

"I haven't seen my brother in about half an hour, he was in an explosion, he could be dead!" Caiden shouted and the receptionist shrunk away.

"Ummm… Green Wing, Room 14C I think." She said intimidated and Caiden turned immediately and sprinted off, Jeremy glanced at the receptionist sympathetically who had shrunk back in her chair and was hiding behind her magazine.

Caiden raced through the hospital with Jeremy hot on his heels. It didn't take long to reach Emerson's room. The window wasn't very big so Caiden couldn't see much through the glass; most of Emerson's bed was obscured but Caiden could see Amya kneeling next to it, she was laughing. Caiden stormed in and surprised Amya, she jolted to her feet.

"What is going on?" Caiden demanded.

"Hi bro, it turns out it was just a flesh wound." Emerson said from his bed and Caiden stood there silent, all the worry gone from his face having been replaced by anger. "Isn't that great?" Emerson added hopefully.

"I have been worried to death." Caiden said quietly.

"Ah…" Emerson said awkwardly. "Well that isn't something I was expecting…"

They all stayed motionless, Jeremy intrigued by the drama, desperate to know what was going to happen next.

"It really hurts." Emerson said helpfully. "You can see it if you want, I needed stitches."

Caiden walked slowly over to Emerson, as if calculating his move. Emerson sat up in his bed and began to pull up his hospital gown, instead of leaning forward to look; Caiden punched him in the face. Emerson's head shot back down on to his pillow and he howled in pain as blood started to freely flow from his nose.

"Come on bro, I didn't mean to be not dead. If you're really that desperate, we can always cause another explosion and I'll happily stand there and be incinerated." Emerson whined as he clutched his messed up nose.

Caiden stood up, turned away and walked to the door. He turned back to his brother. "I'll be at home, Amya, you take Emerson to ours when everything's finished here, Jeremy, go home, you've had enough for one day." He opened the door and was about to walk out when he turned again. "Oh, and Jeremy, thank you for everything, and I believe we owe you a job. Take my phone, we'll call you when everything's sorted, but for now, do yourself a favour and relax." With that he turned and left.

"I guess we'll see him at home then." Emerson muttered.

**A/N: I found Amya, if anyone cares… Gave you a scare there didn't I (no) when Emerson was 'dying' (No, you really didn't) I bet you were weeping (NO!) Ok, ok… I get the message, geez… Anyway, please review! I will love you forever if you do. Other chapters are up, more are coming. Thank you so much, love you, bye.**

**Mangobean.**


	9. Chapter 8-An Unexpected Visitor

**Chapter 8**

Caiden took a taxi home; it didn't take long, only twenty minutes or so. When he reached the house, he noticed the door was open, no sign of forced entry, strange he thought. Instinctively, he set his hand alight and held it out in front of him. He noticed a long black coat hung neatly up on a hook, ok, the burglar obviously didn't think he would be returning soon.

They were still inside, but Caiden could not see, nor hear any sign of them other than the coat. All but one of the doors were shut, the door to the living room. Caiden crept forward slowly and silently towards the half opened door, his closed fist held out in front of him, ready for an attack.

He reached the open door, in front of him was the living room, a simple room with two sofas in an L shape taking up the majority of the room, both facing a large flat screen TV. Without making a sound, Caiden stepped through the door, into the room.

Before he could look around, a hand grabbed his shoulder, by instinct, he twisted his body, swinging his flaming fist round going for the intruder's head. The intruders other hand grabbed his wrist and the flame sputtered out. He was about to bring his knee up to the intruders chest when he recognised him.

"Ryker." Caiden said. "How nice to see, I'm glad you made yourself at home."

"Yeah, well you weren't here and I'd come all the way down to meet you, so it wasn't as if I was going to go back home."

"Fair enough."

They stood awkwardly for a minute until Ryker decided to ask:

"Where's your brother?"

"Oh, he's… around, at a hospital."

"You finally snapped huh?"

"What? No, we were fetching something for someone, there was an explosion and…" Caiden started explaining. "Oh, crap!"

"What?" Ryker asked.

"We didn't retrieve it; it must have been destroyed in the fire. Crap! How are we meant to get the information from Rysk without it?" Caiden ranted to himself.

"Wait, slow down." Ryker said. "Is that Navaryous Rysk, how are you involved with him? Don't tell me he's also in this 'team'!"

"What, Rysk no, of course not. You know what; I might as well tell you everything that happened after we left yours." Caiden said and he explained everything right up to the hospital.

"So the problem now is that we have nothing to trade to Rysk for the information we need." Ryker concluded.

"Basically, yes…" Suddenly Caiden's brain clicked, he remembered what his brother had said earlier. "He's a genius." Caiden said quietly.

"Who's a genius? What?"

"My brother, he has the solution."

"What do you mean, what's the solution?"

"Jeremy."

Frankly, Emerson was fed up. He'd been knocked into a spiky bush, beaten up more times than he could remember, stabbed by a piece of shrapnel bigger than his hand and then punched in the face by his own brother for not being dead. All in all, nothing to give him a great confidence boost.

The nurse said he needed to stay in bed for at least another hour and so, to pass the time, he watched the TV in his room with Amya. There wasn't much on, so they watched the greatest show on earth, SpongeBob Squarepants. After one of the most intense and thrilling hours of his life, Emerson was free to leave. As the closing credits rolled in, his brother stormed into the room with Emerson's least favourite bush pusher.

"Is that SpongeBob Squarepants?" Caiden asked mocking excitement.

"It was yes, you just missed it." Emerson said sadly.

"Damn!" Caiden said faking annoyance. "Anyway, Emerson, we need to call Jeremy."

"Couldn't you have done that without having to come back down here?" Emerson suggested and Caiden frowned.

"Uh…" he said awkwardly.

"Uh indeed." Ryker said. "You dragged me out here saying it was imperative that you speak to your brother and when I asked to stay at your house, you said, 'NO!' I must come with you."

"Uh?" Caiden repeated hopefully.

"Well that's responsive." Ryker said sarcastically.

"Yeah, he does that." Emerson explained and Ryker just shook his head.

Caiden glared and his brother but quickly recovered himself.

"Emerson, we need to go to Rysk Industries with Jeremy and get him that job, in return he'll hopefully give us the information."

"Oh, so you figured out my idea then?" Emerson guessed.

"Uhuh, and for once, it could actually work." Caiden said genuinely surprised and Emerson looked indignant.

"I come up with brilliant ideas." He insisted and Caiden looked at him. "I do."

"No you really don't."

Emerson's face fell. "No, I don't." he said miserably.

"Anyway, you've gotta call Jeremy, he's got my phone so I can't exactly call him."

"Yeah, sure, but I don't actually have it… with me…" Emerson said awkwardly.

"I'm sorry?" Caiden asked disbelievingly.

"I left it at home, didn't think I'd need it, also it's a new phone and I figured we'd probably get into some sticky situations."

"So you're saying you left your phone at home, where I literally just came from?"

Emerson thought for a moment. "Yeah, pretty much." He agreed and Caiden's face fell.

He turned to Ryker. "It seems we're going back to our place…" he said awkwardly and Ryker grumbled to himself.

"If I'd known we were going to be wandering back and forth all the time, I wouldn't have signed up for this." Emerson just grinned at him and ripped off his hospital own to reveal his suit beneath and led the way out.

"Was he wearing that the entire time?" Caiden asked Amya.

"Not when the doctors were checking for internal bleeding and stuff, but as soon as that was done, he rushed to put it on."

"Wow, he really is different isn't he?" Caiden asked rhetorically, shaking his head as he followed his brother with Amya and Ryker right behind.

All four of them were piled into Amya's car with Amya driving and Caiden in the passenger's seat, which left Emerson to sit in the back with Ryker. The worst thing was, for once, Caiden wasn't failing at his small talk skills and was happily chatting away with Amya in the front.

This left Emerson and Ryker sitting awkwardly in the back. Amya's car was a Ford Fiesta, not very fast, not very impressive, but the worst thing was it wasn't very big. Ryker's large frame took up his own seat and almost the entire middle seat, so Emerson didn't exactly have much space to move around.

"So, Shadow Mastery…" Emerson tried and Ryker grumbled. "What's it… like?"

Ryker just rolled his eyes and turned his head to stare out the window. Emerson waited for an answer for a while, figuring he must be thinking, and then realised none was to come, so he too turned to look out his window, muttering to himself.

The small car pulled up to the Tate's house, into their drive and the four got out. Caiden led the way to the door, put the key in the lock and swung the door open; he started in, but stopped suddenly and held up his hand for the others to do the same. Caiden strained himself to listen; there it was again, a kind of slurping sound, coming from the kitchen.

Caiden started forward slowly and silently, instinctively setting his fist alight. He crept towards the kitchen, the others following suit, "It's like déjà vu." He muttered to himself. As they got closer to the kitchen, the sound got louder and clearer, it sounded like someone drinking.

Caiden put his hand on the door knob, twisting slowly. He flung the kitchen door open to reveal a young man of about Emerson's age with short, black hair that was swept to one side and a black leather jacket that seemed to fit on him perfectly, who was sitting at their kitchen table drinking tea, he didn't seem at all surprised to see them.

"Hello Caiden Tate." He said. "I believe you've been looking for me."

**A/N: Well that came out of nowhere, I hope… This new guy's quite fun, as you can imagine, him and Emerson hit it off, literally. I'm sorry for such a short chapter, I kind of felt I had to end it there. Thanks so much for reading, continue if you want. Please review, I'll send you an invisible dead tortoise if you do. Thanks so much.**

**Mangobean.**


	10. Chapter 9-Confrontations with Alasdair

**Chapter 9**

"Ummm… yes?" Caiden said completely startled.

After an awkward pause, the man sipped some more tea and Emerson said, "You're drinking tea."

"I know." The man replied.

"Why?" Emerson asked.

"Because I'm English." The man answered. "Anyway, my name's Alasdair Blake, I'm a Jumper."

"No you're not." Was Emerson's immediate reply.

Alasdair frowned. "Yes I am. Look." He said and suddenly there was a small pop and he was gone. Something tapped Emerson on the shoulder and he swung round but there was nothing there and when he looked back Alasdair was sitting back down drinking his tea.

"See." Alasdair pointed out.

"Ah, that kind of Jumper… I knew that." Emerson muttered awkwardly to himself.

"I was told you were looking for me." Alasdair continued.

"By whom?" Caiden asked frowning.

"I have my sources."

"I'm not even going to make a joke there." Emerson muttered quietly but Caiden shut him up with a glare.

"Ok, yes we are looking for you." Caiden started and Alasdair gestured for him to continue. "We need your help."

"I guessed as much, why?"

"We're gathering a team together…"

"What for?" Alasdair interrupted.

"Have you ever heard of the Bloody Murderers?" Caiden asked.

"Well duh." Alasdair said rolling his eyes.

"Alright, you don't have to be so rude." Caiden muttered, taken aback slightly. "Well, they've been causing a lot of trouble killing people recently so we have been tasked by the British Guild master Nevada himself, to take them down."

"Ok, I can see you have these three lovely people here, but where's the rest of your team?"

"Well, ummmm… this is the rest of our team, this is what we've got." Caiden said.

"So far?" Alasdair asked hopefully.

"Nope, including you, this is our team."

"You're going up against the Bloody Murderers with five people?" Alasdair asked disbelievingly.

"There are only five Bloody Murderers." Emerson added helpfully.

Alasdair turned to Emerson. "That may be so, but they're the Bloody Murderers, world renowned serial killers. How is your team of average mages going to take them down?"

"How do you know we're average mages, we could be the world's greatest." Caiden retorted.

"Well are you?" Alasdair asked doubtfully.

"No." Caiden admitted. "Since we're on this topic, let me introduce you to the rest of the team. This here is Amya Radiant," Caiden started indicating Amya. "a very accomplished woman who has practised Air Mastery for most of her life and so has therefore become a very accomplished mage." He continued and Amya smiled at the compliment." This is Ryker Crow, a shadow magician…" Caiden started, and then thought awkwardly for a moment before quickly moving on. "And this here, is my younger brother Emerson, who is an energy manipulator and extremely difficult to live with. That leaves me, my name, as you know, is Caiden Tate, and I practise the mastery of fire." To prove his point, Caiden set his hand alight.

"Very…interesting." Alasdair said. "What are you prepared to give me for my help?"

"Well, to be honest, I was kind of hoping you'd help out of the goodness of your heart…" Caiden said awkwardly. "But if not, what would be your price?"

"You say you were assigned this 'mission' by the Guild Master himself yes?" Alasdair began.

"That is correct." Caiden confirmed.

"Well, you see, what I have in mind is, I've been looking for a job because I'm not really getting much income, so after this is over, I want to be paid for this job, and then given another job working for the Guild. Nothing shabby mind you, I want a proper, well paid job, see if you can get me with the Combat Mages." Alasdair demanded.

"We could probably do that." Caiden replied. "We'll talk to Nevada; see if we can get something sorted out."

"That's good enough for me." Alasdair said happily. "So, where do we start?"

All eyes turned to Caiden. "Well… how about I call up Nevada and you all sit down for some tea?"

"And biscuits." Ryker added.

"And biscuits." Caiden agreed.

"Nevada says yes." Caiden exclaimed to the rest of the group who were sitting at the table with their tea and biscuits.

"What job did he offer me?" Alasdair asked.

"He said he'd love for you to join the ranks of the Combat Mages."

"What rank?" Alasdair asked suspiciously.

"He suggested perhaps a Captain." Caiden said hopefully.

In truth, it was Caiden who had suggested it, Nevada had been reluctant to even let him join, but Caiden had insisted it was for the good of the mission. Finally they had agreed that they could always fire him, anyway, he might even be good at his job. Nevada had given the ok and sent some paper work for Green to sort out.

"I guess I can settle with that." Alasdair admitted.

"Good, Nevada will be in touch to talk salary and all that."

"Ok."

After a while of silence, Emerson asked. "Just a question, what exactly are we going to do now? We have the team together and everything, so what's our first move?"

"Well… we need to find Villainous and his gang." Caiden replied.

"Well, obviously, but how?"

Caiden was silent for a minute, but finally said. "I never really looked this far ahead…"

"You don't know?" Ryker asked fearing the answer.

"Well… no, but it's not that hard to come up with plans is it?" Caiden admitted.

"Actually, yes." Amya replied.

"Ah…" Caiden said awkwardly.

"Ah indeed." Emerson agreed.

"Ok, how about this:" Alasdair started and Caiden looked at him amazed.

"You've thought of a plan?" he interrupted.

"What!?" Alasdair asked startled by the random interruption. "Well, yes. Why wouldn't I have thought of a plan, I'm not only useful for transport you know."

"No, of course not, I'm sure you're breathtakingly talented at collecting the groceries as well." Emerson replied sarcastically and Alasdair glared at him.

"Anyway." Caiden interjected before they could start arguing. "What's your plan?"

That seemed to get Alasdair's attention. "Well, I was thinking, Emerson told me you have already had quite a violent run-in with these guys recently, so they obviously want to do more than just say hi." Caiden nodded. "Well, I was thinking, just a thought…"

"Tends to be what thinking is." Emerson muttered but Alasdair didn't seem to hear.

"that if we were to split into groups, let's say Amya, me and Ryker, and then you two, and were to go out and look like we were looking for them…"

"It's as if." Emerson interrupted.

"What?" Alasdair asked confused.

"Not like we were looking for them, it's as if we were looking for them."

"Whatever, look 'as if' we were looking for them then they are bound to attack at least one of the groups, and when they do, I can just teleport the other group over to help, and from there I suggest we improvise."

Caiden looked surprised. "Wow, that actually seems like quite a good idea."

"Well why else would I suggest it?" Alasdair asked frustrated.

"Maybe because you're delusional?" Emerson answered helpfully.

"I'll show you delusional!" Alasdair snapped and he disappeared.

Emerson felt an arm wrap round his throat and he was yanked backwards. Suddenly, he blinked and he was somewhere else. He sensed Alasdair standing back and he managed a glance around him before he was hit. He was high up, he could see that, buildings far below and tiny dots that were obviously people. He was on a building as well, he knew that, but where? Another punch flew in, the next was coming, he could tell. He sensed the fist rush towards him, and brought down his around to deflect it.

He twisted round and tried a punch of his own but his fist hit thin air and he stumbled forward. He felt a boot smash into his back and fell forward, his chin bashing against the solid ground. He was dazed and almost unconscious, he felt himself being lifted up and then he was being held out over open space, two strong hands gripping his shoulders. He opened his eyes to see Alasdair's angry face staring at him.

"Do you know where we are?" Alasdair asked him.

He took another look around, looking down made him feel nauseous, but that was the only place he could look, around him was only sky. "Not a clue." Emerson answered.

"Have you ever been to America?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well… have you ever been to the Empire State Building?"

"Nope, but I've seen it, from the ground."

"Well we're doing a lot more than seeing it from down there." Alasdair said indicating the ground far below.

"Ah…" Emerson said awkwardly. "I don't suppose you're going to take me back home?"

"Nope, but if you wanted I could let you down?"

"Wouldn't be my ideal ending to this situation." Emerson admitted.

"Didn't think so. Here's my proposition: either, you agree to stop being such a dick, and I let you back onto the ledge and we go back home to your brother and go get beaten up by the enemy, or you decide to continue being the obnoxious twat that you are and I let you pay a visit to the lovely American citizens down there. What will it be?"

"Would you like me to take your jacket?"

"That's a good boy." Alasdair said and brought him back onto solid ground. "If you'd like to take my arm?" Emerson did and they were back in the house.

"Hi?" Emerson said and surprised Caiden who was standing with his back to them.

"Where the heck have you been?" Caiden demanded.

"We took a trip to America." Emerson replied.

"Where?"

"The Empire State Building."

"Why would you go to the Empire State Building, we have to concentrate." There was a pause and then Caiden continued. "What was it like?"

"Oh, no, we weren't actually in the Empire State Building, we were at the top… you know…" Emerson corrected him.

"Oh, that's what you were doing, ok…" Caiden said awkwardly. "What was it like?"

"Well I didn't exactly have much time to admire the view did I?" Emerson snapped.

"Ok, ok. I've always wanted to do that."

"What go up to the top? I know right, it was pretty awesome." Emerson agreed.

"No, not go up to the top, threaten you by holding you off the edge."

"Oh… Well aren't you a great brother." Emerson said sarcastically.

"I know right." Caiden agreed grinning.

"Where are the others?" Alasdair asked suddenly and they both jumped.

"Oh my… Sorry, I completely forgot you were there." Caiden said surprised. "Right, ok, I sent the others off ahead, they should be on their way to 'check out Archie Bellow's gym, you'd better go with them…" Caiden said indicating Alasdair. "And me and my lovely brother will go to Angelo Scraper's favourite pub."

"My lovely brother and I." Emerson said.

"I'm sorry?" Caiden asked confused.

"It's not me and my lovely brother." Emerson corrected.

"You're right, it's not, it's me and my ridiculously annoying brother." Caiden said sarcastically and Emerson rolled his eyes.

**A/N: Ah Emerson, he has such a way with people. I like the next chapter, I really do. It's fun. I'm not gonna tell you if their plan fails or not, but I'm sure you could probably guess (Muahahahahahaha). Thanks so much for reading, there's another chapter up if you want to carry on reading and I should be updating at my steady, slow pace. Please review, it would mean so much to me if you even just said: 'You're a dick.' Honest, I just want a response. Thanks so much.**

**Mangobean.**


	11. Chapter 10-An Unfortunate Turn of Events

**Chapter 10**

After Caiden had told Alasdair where to go, and where they were going, he'd gone to give Amya and Ryker a hand and so left the brothers alone. They took a taxi to the pub, the journey took over half an hour and when they got out, they found that they were in the middle of nowhere, in the stereotypical countryside. Caiden paid the driver and they strolled up to the entrance.

Despite it being completely out the way, the pub was packed. It looked like an average pub, and would have been if it wasn't for its name. It was called The Bloody Corpse. They could hear the sound of people inside laughing as they drunk and played cards or pool.

"Who calls their pub The Bloody Corpse?" Emerson wondered.

"I guess we're about to find out." Caiden replied. "I assume you have your phone with you?"

"Uhuh."

They walked in and as soon as they entered, all the noise stopped. As they looked around, they saw that everyone in the room had their eyes fixed on them.

"Not particularly inviting is it?" Emerson muttered.

"Hello?" Caiden tried but no-one replied. "We're looking for someone." He continued. "You might know of him. We're looking for a man named Angelo Scraper."

At that, people started whispering and muttering to each other.

"Anyone seen him around?" Caiden asked but there was still no reply, however Caiden noticed a small group of aggressive looking thugs who were making their way towards the brothers. There were four of them, two reasonably chunky skinheads, an average sized guys and a huge giant of a man.

"Look, we don't want any trouble." Caiden tried.

"Oh, well that's unlucky, because we do." Said the smaller guy, probably the leader, since Caiden doubted the others knew words longer than three letters.

The crowd had realised what was happening now and were starting to get excited about the prospect of a fight. They didn't have a clue who these newcomers were but they knew the four who were opposing them, they were quite notorious within the bar.

"You mess with Scraper, you mess with us." The leader said threateningly.

"That's fine by me." Emerson replied and his confident response put a frown on the thug's face, he wasn't used to people fighting him and his gang willingly. Quickly the frown disappeared. "Which one of you wasn't to fight Hugo?" he asked, as the giant stepped forward and bellowed his name.

"Shotgun not." Emerson said.

"Wow, you're so immature." Caiden replied. He looked up at the giant, "Nothing personal but I'm going to hit you in the face with the pool table." The giant frowned; apparently he didn't like being hit in the face with the pool table, Caiden reasoned it had probably happened enough in his lifetime.

"Hugo." Said the leader and the giant looked down. "Crush him." Hugo charged forward bellowing his name and Caiden muttered something about always having to fight the big guys and charged forward too, setting his arms alight instinctively. This bar had obviously seen magic before because no-one seemed to notice.

"So, shall we settle this with a pool game?" as Emerson said this, Hugo picked up the pool table and swung it towards Caiden who slid underneath it and it smashed into the wall splintering into pieces.

"Ok, so maybe not pool, how about a game of cards?" Emerson asked hopefully.

The leader brought out a large nasty looking knife and started twirling it. One of the skinheads brought out a crowbar and the other brought out a sawn off shotgun. "Oh crap." Emerson muttered and the skinheads grinned.

"I'm going have Dan here shoot you in the knee caps so you can't run off and then I'm going to slowly skin you alive, once I'm done there, I'll grind your bones to dust and send them to your parents" said the leader menacingly.

"I assume a game of cards is off the table then." Emerson said sadly. "Pity, I was rather looking forward to watching you cry, I guess I'll have to do it manually instead."

The leader growled and gestured for the skinheads to attack, they did. The first one ran forwards, with his crowbar above his head ready to strike. Emerson didn't want to kill any of them, so instead of blasting him full in the chest with energy, he sidestepped at the perfect moment, grabbed the skinhead's arm and yanked it behind his back. The skinhead yelped, and then screamed when Emerson roughly dislocated his shoulder and shoved him forward violently to the ground so that he face planted with quite some force, his nose exploding in blood. He didn't get up; he just stayed curled up in a ball whimpering.

When the second skinhead fired, the bullets were stopped by Emerson's energy shield that he had put up. The skinhead frowned, pumped his shotgun and fired again, the same thing happened. This time, he had to reload, so Emerson charged forward and barged into him, knocking him backwards into a wall.

The crowd around them were watching in awe as Emerson dealt with one and then simply barged past another. Emerson continued towards the leader who wasn't looking quite as smug as he had been. The second skinhead had recovered and got back up by the time Emerson had reached the leader. The leader started some sweeping movements with his knife to keep Emerson back, and then when he realised there was no attack coming, he jabbed forward, Emerson didn't need his shield to block it, he just sidestepped and rapidly disarmed his opponent.

In a few movements Emerson had the knife and the leader was backed up against the crowd who were astounded by the newcomer's skill and were not going to let the losing side go without a punishment. As the skinhead ran forward, having changed tactic because he realised shooting wasn't going to achieve anything so he had decided to hit Emerson with his shotgun instead.

As the skinhead got close enough, he began to prepare for a swing with the shotgun. Emerson just swivelled his body a little and swept his foot up and round in an arc behind him so that his foot caught the skinhead in the temple and he collapsed to the ground unconscious dropping his shotgun.

The crowd were all whispering excitedly at the drama. Emerson glanced over to see how his brother was fairing. The giant Hugo may have been strong, but like all people his size, he was extremely slow and clumsy, so he couldn't land a hit on Caiden. Caiden had fulfilled his promise and was battering Hugo with large chunks of what remained of the pool table, all seemed to be in order.

"Ok… I'm going to ask you a question and I'm going to ask you it once. If you don't answer correctly, I'll shoot your kneecaps with the shotgun so that you can't run off, and then I'll slowly skin you alive, once I've done that, I'll grind your bones to dust and send them to your parents, so listen up. Where is Angelo Scraper?" Emerson asked with an edge to his voice that told the thug that he wasn't lying. The crowd had gone silent, something had happened.

"Here I am." Said the Tex from behind Emerson, he turned to see Angelo Scraper with his revolver pressed against Caiden's temple, his finger on the trigger.

"Ah, there you are. We've been looking for you." Emerson stated and his hand drifted slowly to his pocket.

"Ah ah aaah, I wouldn't if I were you, if I see a glimpse of you reaching for your phone then out come your brother's brains; and I'd hate to ruin that lovely man's suit." Angelo warned him indicating the man standing to the side of the commotion, the man slowly edged sideways out of the firing line.

"How about you give me your phone…" Angelo suggested. "That way, we'd be able to avoid any horrible mishaps. Of course, if I even see the screen light up, bang."

"Of course." Emerson said and reached for his phone, he brought it out of his pocket and put it on the ground at his feet. He slid it across the floor towards the Texan, who slammed his foot down on it, his heel smashing the screen.

"But that was a good phone." Emerson said mournfully.

"Oh, well I'm so sorry," Angelo said, sounding genuinely apologetic, "but we wouldn't want someone to stupidly try and send a message to your friends would we, because then we'd have your poor dead brother to worry about."

"Very true." Emerson agreed.

Emerson could see Archie Bellows standing guard at the entrance, but he didn't know where the others were. As if reading his thoughts Angelo said,

"The others are around." As if on cue, Angela strolled out of the ladies with her maniacal grin on her face.

"Hey sis, look who I found." Angelo said as if he had just come across some old friends. "Isn't it so amazing how just as I decided to go down to the pub, these guys decided to go too, it's such a small world."

"We might want to leave soon, I killed someone in there." Angela said in her shrill, high pitched voice.

"Angelaaaaaa. We've talked about this." He turned to Emerson and said again rolling his eyes, "We have talked about this. You see my sister has this obsession with torturing and murdering random strangers, I've tried everything. I even took her to a psychiatrist; it obviously didn't work because she ended up murdering him."

"Typical woman." Emerson said knowingly.

"I know right. One minute they're begging to get a puppy, the next they're ripping out the shopkeeper's finger nails." Emerson didn't have an answer to that.

"Anyway, let's get down to business, you wanted to see me, here I am, I'm here with my gang, you're here with your brother, I have a gun pointed at your brother's head,"

"Yes, ok, I get the picture." Emerson interrupted. "You're in a good position; I'm in a slightly compromising one."

"Exactly."

"What is it that you want Scraper?" Caiden demanded after staying quiet for such a long time.

"Oh, hi Tate Senior, I kind of forgot about you." Angelo said. "What is it I want? What is it I want? I'll tell you what I want! I WANT REVENGE!"

Angelo's voice reverberated around the pub, the silent crowd flinching at those words. Archie stayed motionless at the door, Sickening popped his misshapen head through the doorway and sauntered in grinning, Angela's smile stayed exactly how it was, Emerson flinched but Caiden didn't let it faze him.

"I want revenge on the Guilds, I want revenge on Nevada, and I want revenge on YOU!" Angelo shouted in Caiden's ear. "You see, us, the Bloody Murderers, we are going to bring the entire magical community to its knees!"

"What do you want with us?" Emerson asked.

"Oh, you're fine, we don't want you. You're free to go back to your buddies and do your very best to try and stop us, but your older brother here, he's coming with us. You see the boss wants him, and the boss gets what he wants." Angelo assured them. "Anyway, now Sickening's back, we might as well leave. He snapped some handcuffs onto Caiden's wrists and Caiden felt his magic bound, Angelo gestured for Archie to take him and he led the way to the door.

"Bye Tate Junior, see you around." Angelo said and walked out.

Caiden took a last look at his younger brother and then was shoved forward by Archie, Sickening and Angela followed behind. Even the crowd began to disperse to leave Emerson standing in the Bloody Corpse all by himself.

"Well we're screwed." He muttered.

**A/N: Well as Emerson put so beautifully, they are well and truly screwed, told you it would be fun. The character Hugo was actually named after one of my friends, who is in fact called Hugo. However, he is neither huge, nor violent, well he can be quite violent, but whatever, I just thought Hugo was a cool name to use. I'm amazed you've read this far and will forever be grateful. Please review and I'll send you another invisible dead tortoise, except this time, it'll be called Brian (Yeah, bet that made you excited). I should update reasonably soon, it takes a while, but you know… Thanks so much.**

**Mangobean.**


	12. Chapter 11-Dealing with Loss with Jeremy

**Chapter 11**

"So you're saying they took Caiden?" Amya asked.

"Yes, yes they did." Emerson confirmed quietly.

Emerson hadn't gone straight home after the incident; in fact he'd stayed at the pub for a while. He'd gone straight up to the bartender and got a drink. He'd stayed staring into space for an hour or so and then left without bothering to pay; the bartender didn't try to ask for any money, he'd seen what he could do.

When he had got back, he called up Amya with the home phone, and they'd gone straight back after 'acquiring' a new mobile from the store for Emerson. When they got back, they'd found Emerson lying on the sofa in the living room eating ice cream from the tub while watching episodes of SpongeBob Squarepants. He didn't even look up when they walked in.

"What happened?" Amya had asked.

At first, Emerson hadn't answered, but then he started from the beginning, after they'd left for the pub.

"So you're saying they took Caiden?" Amya asked.

"Yes, yes they did." Emerson confirmed quietly.

"Did they say where, or why?"

"Not where, but they said Villainous wanted him." Emerson said sorrowfully.

"They won't kill him; I mean they could've done that at the pub if they'd wanted to, right?" Amya said encouragingly. "They could've killed you too."

"Yes, I know." Emerson muttered.

"You say they want revenge, no offence, but why not just kill you?" Alasdair asked and Emerson smiled.

"The Bloody Murderers aren't like that, they don't just want us to suffer, they want everyone to suffer for the 'injustices' that have been done to them." Emerson explained.

"How are you suddenly such an expert on the Bloody Murderers, from what I gathered you only knew they existed a few days ago?" Alasdair asked suspiciously.

"I've met loads of people like them before. They don't care about anything else; their only goal is to make people suffer. It's a bit of a pain really."

"What are we gonna do now?" Amya asked. "I mean, we don't even know where they are."

"No, we don't but I think I know someone who might." Emerson said. "Amya, do you have Jeremy's number on your phone?"

"Yes, why?"

"We need to call him."

"Wait a second." Alasdair stopped them. "You're going to ask a teenage boy, who has no knowledge of the magical community at all, where a gang that not even the biggest Magicians Guild in the world can find is?"

"No, we're not going to ask Jeremy about that, we're going to finally get him a new job." Emerson replied.

Jeremy wasn't too chuffed, sure he'd found out that there were secret magical communities around the world protecting it from crazy maniacs who wanted to destroy it. Yeah he'd exploded a car to knock out and possibly kill a significant amount of people to save some magical friends. He'd also seen one of those friends stabbed in the chest by a very impressive piece of rubble and so after being interrogated by the police, he rushed to the hospital to see if he was ok and found out it was only a flesh wound. Despite all of those things, he was bored, he wanted more excitement.

Caiden and Emerson were really great, Amya too, but they'd just left him to do other more important things like saving the world, meh, no biggy. Of course Jeremy would be cool and pretend he didn't mind, but he really did. He didn't mind at all about a new job, sure it would be good, it'd get his parents off his back, but he just didn't care. He just wanted to hang around Caiden and Emerson, see some more action.

The most exciting thing that happened while he was at home was finding out SpongeBob Squarepants was on, so he'd watched a few episodes of that, well a few was probably an understatement. Thrilling stuff though. After that however, he just lay in his room being bored, so when his mobile rang he literally leapt off his bed, knocking over his lamp to reach his phone.

"Hello?" he said casually into the receiver.

"Ah, hi Jeremy, it's James." Jeremy's face dropped as he realised it wasn't Caiden or Emerson.

"Oh, hi James." He said drearily into the phone.

"Well don't you sound happy to see me?" The phone replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, sorry mate, I thought it was going to be someone else." Jeremy said apologetically.

"Oh well that's friendly." His friend said, really heaping on the sarcasm. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to go down to the cinema, but obviously if you don't want to, we don't have to."

"No, man, of course I do it's just stuffs happened recently and I was kind of hoping it was someone else."

"Oh, well that's nice that is, you know what, I take it back, I have plans today, I can't go to the cinema."

"No, mate, I didn't…" Jeremy tried but his friend had already been hung up.

He was just about to put his phone back down when it started ringing again.

"Hi, James, I'm sorry…" Jeremy started, but it wasn't James.

"Hi Jeremy, it's me Amya." The voice the other side of the phone said.

"Amya." Jeremy said startled. "Hi."

"Yeah, hi. I was wondering if we could meet you somewhere, we've have a possible job for you if you want it?"

"Yes." Jeremy answered perhaps a little too quickly.

"Are you sure you don't want to think about it?"

"No. I mean, no thank you, I think I'll be ok." Jeremy replied excitedly. "Where do you want to meet?"

Two hours later, Jeremy arrived at the restaurant that they had agreed to meet at. It was quite a posh Italian restaurant. When he got there, Jeremy noticed Emerson, Amya, and two other guys discussing what seemed like a very important and serious subject. When he noticed Jeremy, Emerson stood up and introduced him to the two other guys, Ryker Crow and Alasdair Blake.

"It was really great of you to come buddy." Emerson said gratefully.

"Yeah, well I've got nothing else to do; anyway, you still owe me a job." Jeremy replied jokingly.

"A job which we have finally got ready for you. However, we also have something else that we kind of need to do."

"And this has something to do with my job?"

"Yes, quite a lot… ok, a lot… ok, pretty much everything." Emerson admitted.

"May I ask how?" Jeremy asked curiously.

"Well, we're going to trade you for information." Emerson replied and Jeremy frowned. "Ok, that came out wrong. We put you up for a potential job and he tells us what we want to know, if he knows it anyway."

"And if he doesn't?" Jeremy asked suspiciously.

"If he doesn't, then you get put forward for the job, but we don't get the information. Either way, you get a new job." Emerson said reassuringly.

"Or at least get recommended for one." Alasdair said helpfully.

"Yeah, at least that." Emerson agreed.

"Sounds good." Jeremy agreed. "The only problem is, what job do you think he'll offer me, I don't exactly have much experience?"

"I don't have a clue; I guess we'll have to find out."

The five of them sat awkwardly round the table and then a waitress came with a tray of drinks. They took their drinks and the waitress left with the tray, the awkward silence resumed.

"Just a question," Jeremy started and Emerson inwardly sighed in relief. "Where's Caiden?"

Emerson coughed awkwardly, the sigh of relief completely vanished. Luckily it was Amya who answered.

"Well, that's part of the information we need…"

"Oh…" Jeremy said awkwardly, feeling terrible. "Was he…"

"Yes, taken by the… others, the people who for some reason aren't out friends." Emerson said. "Couldn't imagine why…" Emerson frowned and looked very confused.

"Anyway…" Amya coughed. "Back to the matter at hand." She turned to Jeremy, "The person that'll be your boss… isn't really a person, it's an it."

"What? Is it like, an alien?" Jeremy asked confused.

"An alien? No, wow, you watch way too much Sci-fi. No, it's just a spiderlike creature kind of thing with long spindly legs." Amya replied.

"Don't forget ugly." Emerson prompted.

"Oh yeah, it's really ugly." Amya agreed.

"Right, well that's much better." Jeremy sighed sarcastically.

"I know right." Emerson agreed wholeheartedly, completely missing the sarcasm. "An alien, pffffft they don't exist… probably." Amya just shook her head.

"Just before we go and get my job, I was just wondering who exactly this thing is and what it does?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, its name is Navaryous Rysk, and it's a…" Emerson started, then frowned and turned to the others. "What is it exactly that Rysk does?"

"Not a clue." Amya answered.

"I think it's a businessman of some sort." Ryker replied thoughtfully.

"Never heard of this chap before this conversation." Alasdair answered simply.

"Wait, did you say Rysk?" Jeremy asked. "As in Rysk Industries?"

"Why, do you know him?" Emerson asked curiously.

"Not personally, but I do know that he owns one of the biggest multinational companies in the world."

"Oh." Emerson answered awkwardly. "Well I didn't know that. Old Rysky's done pretty well for himself. Well that could be why they were so insistent for me and Caiden not to go straight up to Rysk's office…" Again Amya shook her head.

"How am I meant to get a job at Rysk Industries?" Jeremy asked in despair.

"With your natural charm and formidable intelligence?" Emerson asked hopefully.

"You think I have natural wit and formidable intelligence?" Jeremy asked hopefully.

"Well no, but they don't have to know that." Emerson replied and Jeremy's shoulders slumped again.

"We might as well give it a try; I mean what do we have to lose?" Amya said optimistically.

"Our dignity, our humility, our pride…" Emerson replied.

"They're pretty much the same thing." Alasdair interrupted.

"Our lives…" Emerson continued.

"Well that's just a bit drastic." Alasdair muttered.

"Our left pinky finger…" Emerson continued and Alasdair face-palmed.

"Ok, ok." Amya interrupted. "I get the picture; we have a lot to lose. Still though we might as well try, it isn't like we have any other plan."

"As if." Emerson corrected.

"I'm sorry?" Amya asked confused.

"It's as if we have any other plan, not like." Emerson explained.

"Right, sorry, it isn't as if we have any other plan." Amya repeated.

"I agree." Ryker agreed. "We don't have any other ideas, so why not?" Amya nodded her thanks.

"Alasdair, do you have an opinion?" Amya asked the jumper.

"Ummmm… sure, let's do that." Alasdair replied.

"Jeremy?" Amya asked.

"It isn't like…" he started but saw Emerson about to correct him and corrected himself. "It isn't as if I'm going to get the job, but I might as well give it a try."

All eyes turned to Emerson. "I guess we don't have much of a choice… meh, let's go say hi to Rysky."

"Great." Amya exclaimed and there was silence, the atmosphere was extremely awkward, however Alasdair seemed completely unaffected, he just continued to sip his tea.

"Will you stop drinking tea!" Emerson shouted angrily.

"But I'm English." He protested and Emerson stood up abruptly knocking his chair over violently, still Alasdair just sat unaffected. Amya shook her head again in mock despair.

**A/N: Here it is, Chapter 11! Jeremy's back! Is Rysk gonna give him a job, of course he should, Jeremy's awesome! I'm not sure about you, but I think they're coping quite well without Caiden. Please review! I really want to know how much people like it. Thank you so much if you've read this, congrintulations for making it this far, Derek would be proud of you for sticking with a story that isn't Skulduggery Pleasant for so long. Thanks so much!**

**Mangobean.**


	13. Chapter 12-Going Back to Rysk Industries

**Chapter 12**

It took about twenty minutes for Amya to persuade the manager of the restaurant that there was no need to call the police and that Alasdair would not press assault charges against Emerson for the persistent choking that followed their argument. It then took another fifteen minutes to actually prise Emerson hands away from around Alasdair's neck, by which time; the jumper had gone bright red and was beginning to lose consciousness.

When Emerson had finally settled down and Alasdair had recovered from their spat, they all sat back down again and Alasdair quickly finished off his tea. They paid for the drinks and gave a large tip because of all the commotion. Before they had met up, they had taken Alasdair over to Rysk Industries to 'store' the place in his memory, because of this, instead of going by vehicle; Alasdair 'jumped' them there.

Jeremy had not been sure what to expect when the prospect of teleporting over there had been suggested, however he had welcomed the opportunity. He had been expecting it to be dramatic and exciting, he had not however been expecting the sudden change in scenery that he experienced. The others, who were used to this sort of thing, seemed unaffected, and when they arrived, they all started forward towards the building. Jeremy however stood, locked in place.

"Jeremy?" Amya asked worriedly, but the youth made no response.

"Excuse me." Emerson said and prodded Jeremy in the chest.

"Are you ok?" Amya asked.

"Ummmmmm... where am I?" Jeremy asked dreamily.

"We're here." Emerson replied as if it was obvious, which it was.

"But we weren't here." Jeremy said confused.

"Yes, but remember we said we were going to teleport?" Emerson asked as if he were talking to a child. "Well we did and…" he never finished the sentence because Jeremy lurched forward and made a horrible vomiting sound, the stuff itself erupting from his mouth as if from a volcano, straight at Emerson's feet.

"Bollocks." Emerson cursed. "I just got these shoes a few weeks ago, they cost me a fortune." He looked down at his ruined footwear solemnly. "Oh well, I guess I know what I'm going to do with the money I get from this job."

At that, he led the way towards the revolving doors of the building. Jeremy stood there hopelessly until Amya put an arm around his neck and led him towards the doors after Emerson, with Ryker and Alasdair following. They entered into the lobby and headed straight up to the reception desk where luckily a different receptionist from earlier was sitting. She looked up and smiled welcomingly at Emerson who smiled back and walked straight past and up the stairs.

"Excuse me." The receptionist said, annoyed at the sudden intrusion. "You aren't allowed up there."

"I don't have authorisation and I need authorisation, I know, I went through this with the last receptionist." Emerson replied angrily.

"I'm sorry; he just recently lost his brother." Amya said apologetically to the receptionist and then strode right past the desk with the others right behind.

"Excuse me! Stop, you can't go up there!" the receptionist said more forcefully but they just continued climbing the stairs.

"Security!" she called.

"What are we going to do now?" Jeremy whispered to Amya.

"Just keep walking." She said back.

Six huge men in suits stormed into the lobby towards the stairs. Emerson and the others continued up the stairs as if nothing was happening. The guards reached the bottom of the stairs and began to climb them three at a time. Ryker was at the back of the group so they reached him first.

One of the guards roughly put his huge hand on Ryker's shoulder to pull him around. As soon as the guard's hand touched Ryker's shoulder, Ryker grabbed the huge man's wrist with his opposite hand. He turned himself round and twisted the guard so that he had his back to him. He yanked his arm behind his back and smashed his boot into the guard's back so that he flew forward down the stairs into one of the other guards.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds; the other guards all stopped and stepped backwards in shock. Ryker turned around again and continued up the stairs with the others. The guards quickly recovered and one pulled out a gun.

"Stop right where you are, put your hands on your head and slowly turn around!" The guard demanded.

Suddenly, Alasdair was behind him, he'd wrapped his arm around the guard's throat and they were gone. Alasdair was back and he grabbed another guard the same way before they could react. Now they seemed realised what was happening and they tried to prepare themselves for what was bound to happen next.

Alasdair was back and he grabbed another, there were two left and the one who had been knocked unconscious by Ryker. Alasdair grabbed one of the two, so there was only one guy left. He looked terrified; his huge frame was shivering with fear.

"Come on then." He shouted. "Come out and face me!"

Alasdair appeared back again but this time he had something with him. Being hit with a shark was not what the guard expected to happen and he was so startled that it was not only the shark that made the floor wet. The shark crashed into the guard and he flew backwards, his head crashing against the wall with a sickening thud, the shark right behind. He lay there unmoving with the now dead shark lying on top of him. The receptionist stared in horror at the scene in front of her.

"You seem to have a shark in your lobby." Alasdair stated. "Don't you think you need a water tank?"

"So you aren't only for transport." Emerson marvelled and Alasdair started up the stairs again as if nothing had happened with Ryker in tow. He seemed to be completely unaffected by the whole thing. Emerson followed, shaking his head in amazement and Amya led Jeremy up after them assuring him that there would be no more sharks.

When they had finally reached the top of the stairs, they went through a door, past some people who had come to see what all the commotion was about. They were in a corridor which seemed to go on for ages; all of the rooms leading from it were offices for Rysk's staff. For some reason, which Emerson would later question, on one of the signs it said Rysk's office was on the top floor, only a few floors above them.

They found a lift and entered it. Already in the lift was an attractive young woman in her mid-twenties and an older man in his fifties. They were obviously trying to avoid any awkward small talk so when Emerson entered, it was most definitely not their best case scenario.

"So, working for Navaryous Rysk, what's it like?" he asked them curiously, the man just looked at him as if he were crazy, the woman however just ignored him.

"Have you ever even seen the guy?" Emerson asked as if his first question had been answered. "He's a great guy, he really is. He reminds me of myself sometimes, and indeed of whoever he wants." Emerson chuckled at his little joke but the others ignored it, Amya just rolled her eyes. This didn't seem to deter Emerson however as he continued his attempt at conversation.

"Of course, it isn't really a him is it? However, you wouldn't know that if you hadn't seen it yet. If you do though, you'll notice the difference between him and a normal guy reasonably quickly." Emerson chuckled at his understatement and decided to continue the conversation even more. "What do you do then? Sit at a computer all day, and every so often pick up the phone?"

At this point, the lift reached the third to top floor and both the man and the young woman got out and went in different directions.

"Bye then." Emerson called after them. "Lovely couple." He muttered.

"I don't think they were a couple…" Amya suggested.

"What do you mean? Of course they were." Emerson insisted. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"Well for one they were standing as far away from each other as they could in the lift…" Amya started.

"They could be fighting." Emerson reasoned.

"Two." Amya continued, ignoring Emerson's comment. "They went in completely different directions when they left the lift."

"They could be having a really big fight." Emerson suggested hopefully.

"Or they could just work on different sides of the building." Alasdair muttered.

"Exactly." Emerson agreed.

"Oh, no, I wasn't agreeing with you." Alasdair corrected himself. "Of course they weren't a couple. I was merely offering you an argument that wasn't quite so pitiful."

"Hey! My argument wasn't pitiful." Emerson insisted. "They might have been having a fight."

"They weren't having a fight." Alasdair said firmly.

"How do you know?" Emerson asked.

"Because they weren't together!" Alasdair snapped back.

"How do you know?" Emerson repeated.

"Because he's going to need a Zimmer-frame in a few years and she's only just got her driving license!"

"He was only fifty." Emerson muttered quietly and Amya smiled.

No-one spoke and they all stood awkwardly as the lift continued to rise.

"Wow, this lift is really slow." Jeremy said breaking the silence.

"I know right, it feels as if we've been in here for ages." Emerson agreed and as soon as he said that, they stopped rising, there was a ding and the lift door opened. "Well that was convenient." Emerson said.

They walked out into a corridor; on the wall on their left was a sign, which said Rysk's office was down the corridor. They started down, Amya in at the lead with Jeremy right behind, Ryker and Alasdair after them and Emerson bringing up the rear. Emerson noticed people working in the offices off to his sides, but not many people were actually walking up or down the corridor.

They reached some impressive looking wooden double doors which seemed completely out of place in the modern building. This was obviously the entrance to Rysk's office. Amya grabbed the wooden knob and twisted it. She pushed the door open and entered with Jeremy immediately after her. Emerson entered last and what he saw was not what he expected. The office was completely empty. Things were scattered across the floor; the desk was a mess. Obviously Rysk had left in a hurry.

"The bastard's scarpered." Emerson cursed.

"Why would it have done that?" Jeremy asked confused.

"Obviously, it knew we were coming and didn't want to see us for some reason." Emerson answered.

"It's obviously already involved with this somehow." Amya decided "It must know something that it doesn't want us knowing."

"We've gotta find it." Alasdair said.

"Yes we do." Emerson agreed. "And when we do, I'm going to wring it's neck."

**A/N: So Rysk's done a runner. What does it have to hide? How is he involved with everything? Are they going to find it? If they do, will Emerson wring its neck? Why am I asking so many questions? Maybe because it's supposed to build tension? Why did I put a question mark at the end of the last statement? I'm going to stop now, probably for the best. Anyway though, thank you so much Anastasia for that properly heart-warming review, it's literally the reason I'm releasing the story onto this site. Please everyone reading this follow her example, I really want to know what people think. Also, you can ask her if she received the invisible brick I promised her, there will be more coming your way if you review. Thanks so much for reading.**

**Mangobean.**


	14. Chapter 13-Asking Mrs Thompson

**Chapter 13**

After they'd found Rysk's office empty, they went around 'asking' everyone in the office where he'd gone. Apparently, not many of Rysk's employees liked their boss. They would have been glad to tell Emerson and the others where he'd gone, however no-one seemed to know.

"Do you have any idea where he was possibly going to go; did he say anything to anyone?" Emerson asked a group of people in their office. He was sitting on a desk with all five people in the room in front of him, answering the questions he asked them. He'd decided to refer to Rysk as a him because he was pretty sure the people in front of him didn't have a clue they were working for a tall spiderlike creature which not only had no gender but was also able to look like almost any living thing it wanted.

"No." One of the people answered, a slightly overweight man with what used to be black, but was now so thinning it was hard to make out hair. "Rysk keeps himself to himself, we barely ever see him. Although he does seem to be out a lot."

"Ok, thank you for your help." Emerson said thankfully and they all turned back to their computers. Emerson turned and left. He went back to Rysk's office where the others were waiting having also asked their share of office workers.

"No luck?" Emerson asked and everyone shook their head. "Why is everyone drinking tea?"

They did all in fact have mugs in their hands with the brown liquid was presiding; every so often they would bring the mug to their lips, take a sip and sigh appreciatively.

"Alasdair made it for us." Amya explained. "You should try some, it's delicious, I'm sure Alasdair wouldn't mind rustling up another cup."

Alasdair shook his head, trying to contain the grin that was desperately trying to form on his face. "Sure, I could easily get you a cup Emerson." He offered smugly.

"I'm fine thank you." Emerson replied gritting his teeth.

"But it's 'delicious'." Alasdair insisted failing in his war against his mouth, a grin now forming on his face.

"I'm fine thank you." Emerson repeated glaring at Alasdair ferociously.

"Ok, suit yourself." Alasdair said still grinning.

"I was told that if anyone knows where Rysk is, it would be his personal assistant." Amya explained.

"Where does this PA live?" Emerson asked.

"In London, not far from here. Her name is Jane Thompson." Amya answered.

"Well, I think we should pay this Miss Thompson a visit." Emerson suggested.

"I agree." Alasdair agreed grinning mischievously.

"Wait, you aren't going to hurt her are you?" Jeremy asked suspiciously.

"No, of course not. We'll just give her enough of a fright to decide to tell us where Rysk is to the metre." Emerson replied happily.

It seemed that Amya might have got the location of Rysk's PA's house a little bit wrong. She'd told them that Miss Thompson only lived about fifteen minutes away, she didn't. It was a really awkward hour and a half as Amya and Jeremy sat in the front, which left Emerson, Alasdair and Ryker to sit squashed in the back.

This was because Amya was driving and Jeremy had been the first to get to the car, so he'd gone straight into the front. Emerson was the one to sit in the middle and his relationship with both of the men on either side of him was not very impressive. After about half an hour of what was made almost as awkward as possible, they arrived outside the drive of a large house, with a black Aston Martin parked outside.

"She seems pretty well off." Emerson muttered.

"Well she is the personal assistant of the owner of one of the biggest companies in Europe." Amya replied.

"But she has a hot tub." Emerson insisted indicating that she did indeed have a hot tub.

"A hot tub, that's what you point out as the most valuable thing that she owns?" Amya asked in mock despair.

"Yeah, they're really useful." Emerson insisted.

"I agree." Alasdair chipped in.

"I'm sorry?" Amya asked disbelievingly.

"Hot tubs are pretty useful; they're like a bath, but without the need to use soap." Alasdair explained.

"Agreed." Emerson agreed wholeheartedly. "Plus they're kind of like a swimming pool. They're like… a swimming bath."

"Yeah, a swimming bath, nice name for it." Alasdair said giving Emerson an approving nod.

"Wow, you two are so… immature." Amya said shaking her head.

"You're only just getting that now?" Alasdair asked and Amya laughed.

They pulled into the drive and Amya parked the car next to the Aston Martin. Emerson was the first to get out, followed by Ryker and Alasdair. Jeremy and Amya got out and they proceeded towards the house. Ryker reached the door first and rapped his knuckles lightly on the door. They heard a door open and close and footsteps approach the door. The door slowly swung open to reveal an attractive woman with long black hair.

"Who exactly are…" she started but didn't finish as Ryker started forward as soon as he saw the door open and strode right past her followed by the others with Emerson following last.

They all passed her without any acknowledgement, Emerson winked but continued after the others, then he thought better of it and backtracked until he was level with Miss Thompson.

"Miss Thompson, lovely to meet you, I'm Emerson Tate. Could I buy you a drink sometime?"

"Emerson." Amya shouted behind her.

"Just coming." Emerson said and winked as he walked after the others leaving the startled black haired woman to stand there on her own while five random strangers made themselves comfortable in her living room.

Miss Thompson's living room was a huge room with two large luxurious sofas, an extremely comfortable looking armchair and a large 92 inch flat screen TV. Ryker had made himself comfortable in the armchair, Jeremy was leaning against the wall attempting to seem casual but looking very awkward, Amya was sitting comfortably on one sofa and Alasdair had sprawled himself on the other. Emerson leisurely swaggered in and slumped down on the sofa next to Amya.

"What's Jeremy doing?" Emerson whispered unsubtly to Amya.

"He's trying to be casual." Amya replied.

"Well he isn't doing a very good job." Emerson said and Amya tried to stop herself from laughing and almost succeeding but she let out a slight gasp and the Jeremy looked at her quizzically.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, you're very casual." Amya insisted as sincere as she could.

"No he isn't, he's sprawled against the wall for what appears to be much needed support, as if he's been really badly hurt and needs to lean on something or he'll just collapse." Emerson said completely missing the Amya attempt at supportiveness.

"I was trying to be supportive." Amya said hopelessly.

"No, its fine, he has the wall for that." Emerson replied.

"No, not like that, I was trying not to hurt his feelings."

"Oh, in that case, you're doing a great job." Emerson said and Amya shook her head in mock despair for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

Jeremy looked quite put out; he thought he'd done quite a good job of looking casual.

Once Miss Thompson had recovered from the initial shock that five random strangers had stormed right into her house, walked right into her sitting room as if they owned the place and one of them had had the nerve to ask her out. Granted he was very attractive, she might even take him up on the offer, but that wasn't the point.

She decided to follow them into her sitting room and demand they state their business. She stormed into her sitting room with as angry a snarl as she could muster on her face and demanded:

"I demand you tell me why you are here!"

However they didn't seem to notice as their eyes were glued to the TV that Emerson had just switched on, they seemed to be watching a kids cartoon programme Miss Thompson noticed. They had the nerve to turn on her TV as if it was theirs, she thought, she was furious. She stormed forwards to stand in front of the TV to block their view.

"Oi." Emerson snapped. "Move out the way."

"Tell me why you are here!" Miss Thompson demanded again.

"Oh, that. Yeah, I was wondering when you'd bring that up." Emerson said thoughtfully.

"Oh shut up Emerson." Amya said. "I'm so sorry for the disturbance; we aren't here to harm you in any way. We just want to ask you a few questions."

"You aren't the press are you?" Miss Thompson asked worriedly.

"Oh no, of course not." Amya replied as if it were a silly idea, which indeed it was. "Do you really think someone like this would work for the press?" she continued indicating Ryker who kept his face expressionless.

"I guess not." Miss Thompson admitted. "What are these questions about?"

"Miss Thompson…" Amya started.

"You might as well call me Jane." Jane said.

"Ok." Amya replied. "Jane, we need to know a few things about your employer Navaryous Rysk."

"As his assistant, I am not able to disclose any information about my employer, but if you want, I could schedule a meeting for you."

"Yes, that would be great thank you."

"Ok, well he is not available at the moment and will not be for the coming months."

"How long exactly." Amya asked.

"I have not yet been informed of when my employer will return."

"You don't know?" Amya asked and Jane paused.

"No." she admitted.

"Do you have any idea of where he was going?"

"My employer does not want this information to be disclosed." Jane replied repeating her earlier statement.

"I'm sure he doesn't but where has he gone?" Amya asked again.

"I cannot tell you at this current time."

"You don't know?"

"I do, however, my employer does not…"

"want the information disclosed." Emerson finished. "We get it. But can't you just tell us."

"No." Jane answered bluntly.

"Why not just be a rebel for once?" Emerson suggested hopefully.

"No."

"We can give you money, or a new job or something. Pretty much anything you want." Emerson tried desperately.

"Pretty much anything I want?" Jane asked sceptically.

"Well yeah. We can't give you some things obviously, but we can give you money and stuff."

"I am already sufficiently paid at my current job."

"Yeah, but are you happy?" Emerson asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Are you happy? Do you enjoy your job?"

"Well, I guess not really but that isn't the point. Money is money."

"Jane, what are your hobbies? What do you enjoy doing?" Emerson asked; his voice full of concern.

"I… I don't know." Jane said morosely suddenly close to crying.

"It's ok, there there, we don't all have hobbies." Amya said sympathetically.

"Well actually we kind of do." Alasdair replied helpfully and Amya glared at him.

"I've worked as Rysk's PA ever since I was eighteen; I've never really had a chance to find out my hobbies."

"Eighteen, that's a bit young isn't it?" Emerson asked.

"He wanted a young PA." Jane explained.

"The slimy git." Emerson muttered.

"Come and sit down." Amya said sympathetically and gestured for Emerson to get up next to her.

Sighing exasperatedly Emerson got up and let Jane sit down in his place. He looked around the room for somewhere else to sit but Ryker was very comfortable in his chair and Alasdair was not exactly going to give up lying down to make space for Emerson. Emerson gestured for Jeremy to follow and he walked out the room, Jeremy seemed surprised that Emerson had gestured to him, but quickly recovered and followed the older man out of the living room.

"This is not going how I'd expected." Emerson said, indicating the living room where Jane sat on the sofa crying her eyes out and having a counselling session with Amya while Alasdair and Ryker sat awkwardly nearby, not willing to give up their comfort.

"Me neither." Jeremy agreed. "I expected there'd be more punching."

"Whoa." Emerson said shocked, we wouldn't punch an unarmed woman."

"Well yeah, of course not." Jeremy agreed. "But I figured you'd probably put a butter knife in her hand or something and then start hitting her."

Emerson laughed at this. "I admit, we're a bit strange…"

"A bit?"

"Ok, we're strange, but we're not bad people, not even the 'Jumper'." Emerson insisted.

"Ok, phew. I was worried I was running around with four maniacs with superpowers." Jeremy sighed.

"Oh, no, don't get me wrong. We are most definitely four maniacs with superpowers." Emerson corrected and Jeremy laughed.

"Ok, ok, but at least you have your heart in the right place."

"Yeah, at least there's that." Emerson agreed.

They looked over to see that Jane had mostly recovered from her breakdown and it seemed that she and Amya had come to an agreement. Amya gestured for them to come over and when they did she said:

"Jane has agreed to tell us where Rysk is; in return we're going to find her a new job, one she enjoys."

"And some hobbies." Jane added.

"Yes and some hobbies." Amya agreed.

"Great!" Emerson exclaimed. "So where is the old bugger?"

**A/N: And that's chapter 13! I know I haven't updated in ages and I'm so sorry. But I've had a few terrible diseases such as Power Cuts, School and Laziness (gasp). I haven't been doing anywhere near as much writing recently as I would've liked, but you know (or you don't). It's pretty hard to do a lot of writing with school and stuff since I finish really late (7:30 and stuff) but I try and do some in the evenings and weekends and now… HALF TERM! I'll try and do as much writing this week as I can, so be prepared for more updates. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing if you have. Please review, it means so much to me if you do. I've got one review that made me sooooooo happy, and thank you so much for it, but even the review after it, which said: 'Good.' made me overjoyed. Thanks so much for sticking with this story, **

**Mangobean.**


	15. Chapter 14-Looking for Rysk

**Chapter 14**

"You can't just keep offering random people jobs without my permission." Nevada said after Emerson had called him to ask about Jane's job.

"I do ask for permission." Emerson insisted.

"Only after you've promised whoever it is that they will get the job, so it makes it impossible for me to say no."

"Of course, why do you think I do it?"

"Well you can't just offer jobs at the Guild to random people."

"Jane isn't a random person; she's worked as the personal assistant for half of her life to one of the most successful businessman this world has ever seen."

"She's still a mortal, she might not know about magic." Nevada suggested.

"She's worked as the personal assistant to a tall spiderlike creature that can change its shape." Emerson pointed out and Nevada was quiet for a while, obviously pondering it. "It really is for the good of the mission." Emerson added.

"Ok." Nevada agreed. "But no more jobs for random strangers ok?"

"Ok, thanks." Emerson said gratefully.

"This mission better be goddamn worth it." Nevada muttered and hung up.

Emerson put the phone down and walked back into the living room where the others were waiting.

"Nevada said yes." He said, and then to Jane. "He'll be in contact soon."

"Great." Jane said happily, having recovered from her crying fit. "Thank you for all your help."

"It's fine, don't mention it." Emerson said.

"And thanks for the information about Rysk." Amya added quickly and Emerson glanced quizzically at her but she shrugged him off.

"I guess we'll probably see you around." Amya said and led the way out.

Emerson made a break for the front and got in next to Amya. When they were all in, Emerson asked,

"Why did we say thank you?"

"Because we were being polite, and she gave us information which she didn't need to give." Amya explained as if she were addressing a child.

"Oh." Emerson said, not quite understanding.

"So where to?" Alasdair asked.

Emerson looked back at him with a frown on his face. "Were you not listening?" he asked.

"No, why?" Alasdair replied shamelessly.

"No reason." Emerson replied and Amya shook her head again. Well, Jane said that Rysk had gone to Hamburg in Germany." Emerson continued.

"I've been there." Alasdair said much to the others relief.

"Great." Amya said relieved. "I thought we might have to go by plane."

"What's wrong with going by plane? You practise air mastery, surely you love flying?" Emerson asked and Amya shot an icy glare at him.

"No, I like flying." Amya snapped a little too quickly. "I just thought it would take too long, that's all." She insisted but it was obvious that that was not all.

"Ok, well we can't take the car, so we can leave it at my house." Emerson said.

"I know that's where I'm going." Amya said quietly but with an obvious edge to her voice.

"Great, I like Germany, it's a nice place." Emerson said contentedly.

After a few minutes of silence, Alasdair said:

"Wait, Germany's the one with the koalas, right?"

Once they'd reached Emerson and Caiden's house, they waited in the car for a while, while Emerson finished off explaining which country Germany was and where in Germany they were meant to be going.

"Ok, so hamburger in Germany." Alasdair said finally.

"No, Hamburg." Emerson corrected.

"Right, of course, hamburger's the food. Actually that name does ring a bell."

"What Hamburg? Great." Emerson exclaimed relieved.

"No, Germany. I think I might have been there once." Alasdair explained and Emerson closed his eyes and started banging his head against the window.

"You know what?" Amya started taking charge. "How about we just show you a map, a few pictures and then you go."

"Sure." Alasdair said simply.

Emerson stopped banging his head against the window and looked up, a dangerous light in his eyes. "You're saying you could just look at a map and then go there?" he asked his voice dangerously quiet.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy." Alasdair replied completely missing the warning signs that Amya was trying to subtly give to him.

"It's pretty easy?!"

"Yeah, all I have to see is where it is in the world compared to other places, and then I can teleport there." Alasdair explained.

"And you didn't think to mention that earlier when I was trying to teach you to distinguish Berlin from the outback?" Emerson shouted.

"Oh yeah." Alasdair realised. "That might have made it a bit easier."

"You think?" Emerson asked sarcastically.

"You know what, it really doesn't matter. At least Alasdair can get us there." Amya reasoned, sensing that Emerson was quite ready to tear Alasdair's head off.

"How about we go inside, sit down with a map and have a bite to eat before we go?" Amya suggested.

"Good idea; and I could make some tea." Alasdair said helpfully and Emerson snapped.

"You are not making tea!" Emerson shouted.

"What do you have against tea?" Alasdair asked unfazed by Emerson's outburst.

"I don't mind tea just, that you continue to make more and more."

"It's because I'm British." Alasdair insisted.

"That doesn't mean you should be obsessed with tea!" Emerson snapped back.

For the first time, Alasdair seemed affected by Emerson's words, he looked hurt. He wasn't sure what to say, how to reply to Emerson's derogatory manner.

"But…" he tried, but stumbled on his words and then didn't say anything else. He looked at Amya helplessly for help.

"How about we just go inside. Alasdair you can make some tea, Emerson you don't have to have any if you don't want to." Amya reasoned.

"Whatever, I guess doing nothing isn't going to get us to Germany." Emerson decided, opened the car door and started towards his house.

Alasdair looked at Amya gratefully and then she followed Emerson with the others after her. As soon as they got in, Emerson went to get a map, Alasdair began to make some tea and the others sat down in the living room. By the time Emerson had found and returned with a map, Alasdair had finished making the tea and they all had a mug.

Luckily, Alasdair had had the sense not to make a cup for Emerson. Well, he was going to, but Amya warned him that if he wanted to keep all his teeth intact, he wouldn't make another cup, Amya wasn't surprised when he took her advice.

"What took you so long?" Alasdair asked and Emerson glared at him but answered anyway.

"I had to look up in the attic, you should go up there, everything's kind of clumped together, in a huge… pile… I think there could be a nest of rats up there… we should probably get it checked out…" Emerson said his face screwed up in thought.

"Emerson." Amya said, jolting him back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, the map, of course." He replied and handed a map of Germany to Alasdair.

Once Amya had explained, with help from the map where Hamburg was, they all appeared to be ready to go, however Emerson had one more question.

"Just one question: Did Jane give us any more, kind of direct instructions of Rysk's whereabouts."

"What do you mean?" Amya asked confused.

"Where in Hamburg exactly is Rysk?" Emerson asked and Amya's face fell so far it nearly hit the floor.

"Poop." She said crestfallen.

"If it helps, he's most likely in a building…" Alasdair offered helpfully but everyone ignored him.

"I guess we'll have to call Jane up again and ask her…" Amya said, totally beaten.

"I studied geography for my A Levels." Jeremy said but he was ignored. "I even went to Hamburg on a trip with my college once." He continued.

"I really don't think the sights of Hamburg are gonna help us at the moment Jeremy." Emerson snapped and Jeremy shrank back a bit.

"Actually, the sights of Hamburg would probably be quite useful." Ryker said quietly, but everyone jumped anyway because he hadn't spoken for ages.

"Oh, Ryker, hey, I forgot you were there." Emerson muttered. "How exactly would the sights of Hamburg help us?" Emerson asked doubtfully.

"Well Jeremy, I presume you know of the best hotels in Hamburg?" Ryker guessed.

"Some of them yes." Jeremy confirmed.

"Someone like Navaryous Rysk would only ever stay in the best accommodation, correct?" Ryker asked.

"From what I gather, yes." Amya agreed.

"Jeremy, about how many of the big hotels in Hamburg do you know of?"

"As I said, some." Jeremy answered.

"Could you probably show us online which are the biggest and most expensive?" Ryker asked hopefully.

"Yeah, sure." Jeremy said, obviously happy with the opportunity Ryker had given him.

"Great." Ryker exclaimed. "We're gonna need a laptop."

Once they had distinguished which were the most likely hotels that Rysk would be staying in, they were finally ready to go. They had been left with for hotels and they had decided to do the logical thing and start with the most expensive one first as that was the one Rysk was most likely at.

"So you're sure you know which country Germany is?" Amya asked Alasdair.

"Yeah, pretty much." Alasdair replied.

"Pretty much?" Amya asked worried.

"Yep, almost sixty percent certain." Alasdair decided and Amya's face went dark.

"Sixty percent isn't too bad." Emerson said quickly sensing Amya was on the edge.

"Sixty percent could land us in any one of the over two hundred countries in the world!" Amya snapped.

"Fair point…" Emerson conceded. "But I'm sure we'll be fine."

"We'd better be, otherwise your face is gonna take a turn for the worst." Amya practically growled at Alasdair.

"And on that happy note, let's get going." Emerson said cheerily.

"Finally." Amya said exasperated.

"Oh, no wait, I need to get something." Emerson said quickly and Amya's face dropped again.

Once Emerson had got himself completely sorted, they were actually ready to go, Alasdair told everyone to grab on, and so they did.

"If I see any camels…" Amya muttered, letting the threat hang in the air, just as they disappeared.

When Emerson opened his eyes, they were in a city, no desert, good start. Luckily they'd appeared in a side alleyway where no-one seemed to be around. Emerson glanced at Amya, she didn't seem too annoyed and she hadn't lashed out at Alasdair yet so she obviously thought they might be in the right place.

"Well, we're certainly somewhere, but the question is where?" Amya said more to herself than anyone else.

Emerson saw some movement in the corner of his eye and he turned to see what seemed to be a nasty looking gang of eight nasty looking young men. His companions had also noticed and had all turned to face the gang of youths. One of them said something in another language that Emerson recognised as German, Emerson couldn't understand what he was saying, but he got the idea. The youth was asking them what they were doing in his territory. To Emerson's surprise, Amya replied in perfect German, the gang laughed at Amya's response.

"What'd you say?" Emerson asked her.

"I told them we came here to rip of their Frankfurters and shove them down their throats." Amya replied and Emerson looked at her disbelievingly.

"What? I'm bored." She justified. "Anyway, if you were the one who could speak German, you could call the shots, but as it is, I'm the only one of us who speaks any of the language."

"I didn't even know you knew any German." Emerson replied.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me."

The German gang had obviously been preparing for a confrontation as they had pulled out a variety of different weapons. Some had flick knives, some much larger, heavier knives, another had a crowbar, and one, the one who had spoken up earlier, even had a machete. They were laughing to each other, and had begun to advance towards Emerson and the others. Amya looked at Emerson and Emerson looked at the others.

"No magic right guys?" he said.

"Whatever, let's just make this quick and brutal." Alasdair confirmed, and Ryker clicked his knuckles in agreement.

Emerson, Ryker, Amya and Alasdair started forward to meet their adversaries leaving Jeremy to stand, unmoving behind them.

"I'll watch your back." He said and Emerson grunted in reply.

The fight started brutally, one side easily on top of the other. With each of the four dispatching their enemies both effectively and violently. The Germans were down within a minute, all eight of them either unconscious or in too much pain to get up again.

"Well that was fun." Emerson said after kneeing the guy with the machete in the face, exploding his nose. The unfortunate youth collapsed onto the ground and began to groan, but made no effort at all to get back up again.

"Yeah, it was. There's nothing like a group of friends beating up young, annoying and violent Germans together is there?" Alasdair agreed.

"Wow, you guys are psychopaths." Jeremy muttered.

"Nah, just moderate sociopaths." Emerson corrected. "Now why don't we go and find this lovely hotel that our friend Rysk is staying in, I really feel like making things squeal."

**A/N: Finally, Chapter 14. I'm so sorry it took so long to release, I've been busy and lazy (a really bad mix) so I haven't done much writing at all recently. I hope this makes up for it a little bit (haha no, nothing can make up for what I've done) but I am genuinely sorry if you actually like reading this (the one person of you out there) and got a bit annoyed that I haven't updated for ages. Thanks so much for reading, feel free to follow, favourite if you want. Please review, it means so much to me when people do. Thanks.**

**Mangobean.**


	16. Chapter 15-Chatting to Madness

**Chapter 15**

Caiden was sitting, rather uncomfortably against the cold, stone wall of his cell. He was in an actual, medieval dungeon, well at least that's what it seemed like to him. There were no windows to his cell, so the only light came from a grate about ten metres away from the entrance to his cell. He had been taken there unconscious, having been knocked out almost immediately after he'd left his brother. He wasn't quite sure how long he'd actually been there, just that it had been a rather long time.

Outside the door to his cell was a kind of corridor with cells on either side all the way down to an opening. He could only just see the winding stairs in the opening that led to the world above. Every so often, one of his captors would come through there down towards his cell with a tray of food and a cup of warm, stagnant water. This was the only indication of what time it was.

His cell itself consisted of a small table which the food and drink was put on, and a bucket, in which he did what had to be done. Caiden liked to think of his new, hopefully temporary home, as small and cosy. Of course, his cell had bound his magic, not that it made much of a difference since he could barely take on one of the Bloody Murderers, let alone all five.

Food was served at different times, separated by reasonably long intervals. Each time, a different member of the gang would come in, he found that Angelo and Sickening, who were more chatty would stay in his cell with him for a while after they'd come in with the food. However Angela and Archie just left immediately. He hadn't actually seen Villainous and to be honest, he was hoping to keep it that way.

The food that he'd received wasn't gourmet, in fact, wasn't really anything, just a bland kind of slop. He wasn't surprised by this as he was their prisoner, and he hadn't actually been expecting any more food than a bowl of grain per day, not that he could tell when the days ended or began. Apart from the cell, and less than exciting food, he hadn't been treated too badly. No random beatings, at least he was fed, and not once had Archie tried to start any small talk with him.

He heard footsteps and Angelo swaggered from the winding steps towards his cell holding a tray of bland deliciousness. Angelo took the keys from his pocket and swung open the door. The first few times this had happened, Caiden had tried in vain to escape and each time he had been easily overpowered. Even if he had somehow managed to incapacitate whoever it was bringing the food, he didn't even know where he was, and he wouldn't have a chance at getting past his other four captors. So now, all Caiden did was sit there staring at the 'food' in front of him.

"Here is your meal sir; I hope it is delicious enough for your Excellency." Angelo mocked.

"Oh, I'm sure it is Angelo my old chap. Just pop it down there, that's a good chap." Caiden replied equally mockingly. "What is it today?"

"Oh, the usual slop we got from the prison." Angelo answered.

"Perfect, just what I need, a good hearty bowl of slop." Caiden said with as much gusto as he could muster.

"Maelicen said to tell you that he's coming to say hello later." Angelo informed him and Caiden shivered.

"Great, I'll be expecting him. Although you might want to tell him that I'll be so transfixed by this wonderful meal that my screaming might not be at its best." Caiden said and Angelo laughed.

"Oh, no. He just said he wanted to talk to you, didn't say anything about any torture…" Angelo said looking somewhat put out. "As fun as that might be…"

"Of course, no, you're not monsters."

"Oh no, we're not monsters, just serial killers." Angelo said happily and turned to leave. "Well I must run, it seems our friend Rysk might be about to blurt out some terrible secrets to your friends and we wouldn't want that to happen would we? I'll have to see what he ends up blurting out, but I must say, if he does end up talking, whatever dreams Rysk Industries has of becoming the biggest company in the world might slowly fade to nothingness." And with that, Angelo turned and walked out, leaving Caiden alone with his food and his thoughts.

Caiden calculated that it was perhaps only twenty minutes after he finished his meal when Villainous arrived. He strode down towards Caiden's cell and the door swung open to reveal the man from so many nightmares. The unsettling mask just stared at Caiden, completely unmoving, but the eyes, those red eyes, seemed to bore right into his soul. When he spoke his mask stayed completely still and the only indication that he was actually speaking was the sound itself.

"Hello Caiden Tate, you left me to die." He said his voice no more than a whisper yet as clear to Caiden as if he was talking normally.

The voice made Caiden's spine tingle and he noticed that he was shaking so he quickly stopped and composed himself.

"I thought you were dead." Caiden replied evenly.

"You left me to die." Villainous repeated, his voice completely devoid of all emotion, yet the hatred was as evident to Caiden as if he was trying to rip his head off.

Caiden decided not to answer, if there was one thing he didn't want to do, it was anger Villainous. Realising that he wasn't going to get a response, Villainous sat down on the table and just stared straight down at Caiden, as if he were looking at a dead thing. Caiden couldn't see his face through the mask, but there was one feeling that he could feel almost radiating from Villainous, distaste.

"What are we going to do with you?" Villainous asked.

"Let me go back to my brother?" Caiden tried hopefully and the face inside the mask laughed.

"Oh yes, Emerson Tate. I've heard he's quite the young man."

"I guess that's one way of putting it."

"Do you think he's planning a daring rescue, doing everything he can to try and get you back?" Villainous asked a trace of amusement in his voice.

"No, he isn't quite that stupid. I think saving me is the last thing on his mind."

"I think you're wrong." Villainous said; an amusing glint in his eyes. "In fact, I know you're wrong. Right now, your brother is leading your merry gang on a mission to come to your daring rescue."

"Oh?" Caiden said, appearing interested.

"But don't you worry your pretty little head, we're setting up an exciting surprise in store for them and soon you might all have a lovely reunion."

"Great, well I can't wait for that little moment of fun, but for now I'll have to make do with talking to you and your friendly gang of psychopaths." Caiden said and Villainous laughed again. "You know, for a murdering lunatic, you actually laugh quite a lot."

"Well psychopaths have feelings too you know?" Villainous said as innocently as he could muster, but with the mask, it seemed more like a threat.

"They do?" Caiden mocked disbelievingly.

"They feel many things, such as: amusement, regret, betrayal, _hate_." Villainous said the last word with a dangerous edge to his voice that made Caiden know that he was talking about him. As it seemed as if Villainous was not going to leave, but stay perched on the table, his eyes staring into Caiden's soul, Caiden thought it best to change the topic.

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked. "I meant this whole thing is about revenge right, well you have me here, at your mercy, what are you going to do? Kill me? Not quickly obviously, but are you going to give me a nice slow death?" Caiden said, his voice rising with emotion so that he was nearing a shout. He calmed himself. "What do you want from me?" he almost whispered but Villainous remained silent.

"I'm not going to kill you." Villainous said finally, after a long pause. "You see this deal that we have, me and my gang. We've decided that if we were going to kill you, we'd all want the honour of doing it ourselves." Caiden looked confused by this so Villainous expanded. "Each of the gang has a different reason, you know mine. Angelo feels that you've tangled with him and his sister enough times, Angela the same. Archie says that apparently you killed one of his family members or something, I'm not too sure, I can't say I was listening." Villainous seemed to be done, so Caiden asked:

"What about Sickening?"

"What about Sickening?" Villainous asked.

"What's his reason? I've only encountered him once, apart from the other day, why does he want to kill me?"

"Oh, he's just wrong in the head, he loves killing people." Villainous explained. "I mean sure, I love killing people as much as the next raving psychopath, but Sickening, he's different, killing is his purpose."

"So if you aren't going to kill me, what are you going to do?" Caiden asked curiously.

"Well after a lot of debating and pondering different ideas, we all decided that we'd make you, your friends, your brother and yourself, kill each other."

"You're expecting us to kill each other?" Caiden asked his face a picture of disbelief. "How are you expecting to achieve that?"

"Well, we have you here now, and soon, once they've stumbled aimlessly into our lovely little trap, we'll have your friends and brother. So once we have you all here, we're going to keep you in this one cell, Sickening wanted a pit, but as I said, he's wrong in the head. We're going to keep you all here in this little cell and keep feeding you, but each time, the food will be in less amounts. You will be kept in complete isolation, all you will have access to is the small amounts of food and each other. After a while, we shall stop feeding you and that's when the fun begins. Not sure about you, but I reckon it'll be your brother who'll turn savage first, ripping you all to shreds." Villainous' blood red eyes glowed almost gleefully and Caiden could tell that he was relishing the thought.

Caiden was quiet, silent, what could he say to that, to the inescapable fate of he, his friends and brother.

"I reckon your brother will start to go mad with the hunger for your own flesh even before we even stop feeding him. In fact, I think all it will take is a tiny nudge and then he'll be gone, lost forever in the clutches of insanity."

Caiden felt the anger rising up inside him, desperate to consume him, but he knew that lashing out at Villainous would achieve nothing except a broken bone. Villainous could sense his anger, his pain, of course he could he lived off it.

"You know it's true, you know your brother's crazy, you are too, we all are," Villainous said, and then moved closer to Caiden and whispered quietly in his ear: "just some more so than others."

With that, Villainous straightened up, spun on his heels and, chuckling quietly to himself left the cell leaving Caiden sitting on the bed, frozen in horror and filled with pure dread. This was when Caiden realised that the man that he thought he knew before, Julian Laire; was completely gone and in his place was this thing, this monster, and it was all Caiden's fault.

**A/N: Hey, it's chapter fifteen, pretty exciting huh? I had a lot of fun writing this chapter (which probably isn't a good thing) so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I want to say a huge thank you to Anatasia for reading, reviewing and even hopefully fannarting (which is most certainly a word) it is ridiculously kind and I hope you enjoy the random, creepy disturbingness (I most certainly did not make that word up) of this chapter. I'm actually trying to do something at the moment which should speed up my writing and hopefully allow me to release more chapters, it's called: planning. I know what you're thinking, 'planning' how ridiculously pointless and boring, but I thought I might try and give it a try. Thanks so much for reading, more should be released soon(ish) hopefully; I'd love it if you could review. Favourite, follow if you want, thanks for everything.**

**Mangobean.**


	17. Chapter 16-A Short Meeting and Chocolate

**Chapter 16**

It didn't take too long to find the hotel Rysk was staying at, it was pretty well advertised. As it turned out, Amya was like a gem, she was amazingly useful especially since none of the others knew any German whatsoever. They actually turned out to be in Hamburg which surprised everyone, although Alasdair insisted he knew exactly what he was doing. To this Emerson just said: 'If you knew what you were doing, why did we have to explain for two hours where Germany is?' and Alasdair shut up.

After an hour or so taxi ride, in which Amya chatted to the driver in perfect German while the others just sat there awkwardly, they arrived at the hotel that they assumed Rysk was staying at. Amya had got the taxi drivers phone number just in case it was the wrong hotel so they could go to another easily.

"He gave his number to you like he was giving you a bomb." Alasdair mocked Amya.

"As if." Emerson corrected automatically. "He gave his number to you as if he was giving you a bomb."

"Oh, right, yeah sorry." Alasdair replied awkwardly.

"You should be, there's no excuse for poor grammar."

"Well anyway, it's almost _as if_ he liked you." Alasdair taunted, stressing the words as if.

"Oh grow up." Amya said as if she were talking to a small child, which in some ways, she was.

They went through the obviously wildly expensive, electric doors into an enormous lobby with four desks on their left, a receptionist behind each one. On the right was a huge, grand staircase obviously leading up to the rooms above. Emerson made a beeline straight to one of the receptionists who was already talking to another customer, with the others right behind him.

"Which room is Navaryous Rysk staying in?" Emerson demanded.

The receptionist looked startled, obviously not used to an English man coming up to her and demanded she tell him where one of her guests was staying.

"I'm sorry, but can't you see I am already talking to a customer, wait in the line please." The receptionist replied in heavily accented English.

"Where is Navaryous Rysk?!" Emerson said again more forcefully.

"I'm sorry, but I am already with another customer, and anyway, I am not permitted to give you details of one of our guests." The receptionist retorted smugly.

"I really can't say I care." Emerson said, losing his patience. "Now tell me where Navaryous Rysk is staying, which room is he in?"

"As I said, I cannot tell you."

"If you do not tell me, then I will destroy this entire hotel and drag Rysk out from the rubble." Emerson said darkly an edge to his voice that warned the receptionist that he wasn't lying.

The receptionist turned her head to the other customer and said in German, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible, but I was obvious that Emerson had frightened her:

"Would you mind waiting a few minutes please?" The man just nodded, shocked by Emerson's aggressive words. The receptionist turned back to Emerson and took a key out from under the desk.

"Would you mind coming this way please?" she asked wearily in her accented English.

"Of course." Emerson said back calmly as if nothing had happened.

The receptionist turned, walked out from behind her desk and led the way up the stairs with Emerson and the others right behind. She turned left at the top and took another staircase up to the floor above. This floor was labelled: 'Wichtige Personen' which Emerson assumed meant something along the lines of important people.

The receptionist turned down a corridor and strode down it. At the end of the corridor, were two large, grand doors. The receptionist fitted the key into the lock, turned it and swung the doors open. I front of them was a large room with doors in random places leading to the different rooms of the almost apartment.

"This is his room." The receptionist announced.

"His room? More like his holiday home." Emerson said in wonder, the receptionist shrugged.

"We are the best and largest hotel in the whole of Europe." She said.

"Oh, I can imagine." Emerson muttered. "Well you'd better go back down to your other customers, I can imagine they're quite infuriated." The receptionist turned and left the room.

"Well, I wonder where our dear Rysk would be…" Emerson wondered.

There were footsteps, almost like a skittering sound and the huge glass double doors that must have led to the balcony swung open and Rysk appeared.

"Good, finally here to give me a massa…" it started but when it noticed the group in front of it, it slowly trailed off.

"Hey Rysky, we're here to ask you a few questions. Now scream, run, attack us or whatever you want, but we're not leaving until we get the answers, and neither are you." Emerson explained.

"Oh poop." Was all it said.

"Where are they keeping my brother?!" Emerson demanded.

They'd all sat down at a table in what they assumed was the living room as they were sitting on sofas and arm chairs. Rysk had transformed into some random person so that he too could sit down. Alasdair had offered to make some tea, but the majority vote was against, well, more Emerson made a violent gesture towards him before anyone could actually answer.

"At The Miranda Castle, in Belgium." Rysk told him.

"Ok, well can't you at least… wait what?" Emerson asked confused.

"The Miranda Castle, in Belgium." Rysk repeated.

"Oh…. Right, I just didn't think it'd be that easy…" Emerson said awkwardly. "I though you wouldn't want to tell us, at least straight away."

"Yeah… me neither…" Alasdair agreed. "Why exactly did you run all the way to Germany away from us when you were just going to tell us anyway?"

"I wasn't running from you, I genuinely have some meetings down here." Rysk replied.

"Oh… well that's pretty convenient, thank you for your time Mr Rysk." Emerson said and stood up, extending his hand to Rysk, who took it and firmly shook it. He led to the door, with the others following him. He started down all the stairs and Amya strode next to him, keeping his pace.

"You know that this is going to almost definitely going to be a trap." She warned him.

"Oh undoubtedly." Emerson agreed.

"Yet we're going to go anyway?" Amya asked her voice concerned.

"Of course. They've spent the time to set a lovely trap for us, the least we can do is walk blindly into it." Emerson explained as if it was obvious.

"You really are strange." Amya marvelled.

"Yes, that has in fact been mentioned quite a lot to me." Emerson confirmed and Amya sighed and dropped back to talk to Alasdair. Jeremy replaced her striding to keep up with the rest of the group's fast pace.

"How are you doing?" Emerson asked him.

"Well, I just teleported to Germany to meet a creature that can change into almost whatever living thing it wishes, and now we're walking blindly into a trap set by murderous psychopaths, not exactly what I told my Mum that I did in my spare time." Jeremy explained and Emerson smiled, but then his face turned serious.

"If this is too much for you, honestly just say and you can go home. I promise you none of us will think any less of you."

"Oh no, this is great, genuinely I love it." Jeremy said a little too quickly.

"Jeremy, is everything alright with you at home?" Emerson asked; concern evident in his voice and Jeremy sighed and said nothing for a while.

"Well…" Jeremy started, but was interrupted by Alasdair:

"We're out of sight here, I could probably teleport straight there if you want?" he offered.

"Yeah, that'd be great." Emerson said gratefully. "First though, do you actually know where Belgium is?"

"I'm pretty sure I do, yeah. It's the one with the nice chocolate right?" Alasdair asked.

"Yep that's the one." Emerson confirmed.

"Right." Alasdair said and paused, composing himself. "Ok, let's go."

Everyone grabbed on and as the world flashed away, Emerson muttered to himself,

"How can you know where Belgium is, without knowing where Germany is?"

And they appeared.

"Well I guess I spoke too soon…" Emerson muttered, again to himself. They had appeared in what seemed to be a factory, there were machines everywhere, each one making a thick brown liquid. Emerson looked around some more and something caught his eye, he looked back around and saw it, a logo.

"We're in Cadbury World." He said, his voice conveying no humour at all at their current predicament.

"So we are." Alasdair exclaimed. "I thought I recognised it. You see I came here when I was a kid perhaps about…" he started to explain happily but was quickly cut off by Emerson.

"Why the heck are we in Cadbury World?!" he snapped, his voice straining to shout.

Alasdair thought for a moment, "It must be because I was thinking of chocolate… you see I associate this place with loads of happy memories so as soon as I thought of chocolate, I thought of here."

"I don't care if you lost your bloomin' dog here, just get us to Belgium!" Emerson shouted this time.

"Jimothy?" Alasdair said timidly.

"I'm sorry what?" Emerson asked confused.

"Jimothy was my dog, I lost him here." Alasdair explained and Emerson nodded sympathetically.

"You called your dog Jimothy?" Amya asked in disbelief. "What kind of a name is that?"

"An amazing name actually." Alasdair said proudly.

"It is a great name." Emerson agreed knowingly. "Especially for a dog."

"See." Alasdair said triumphantly.

"You're using Emerson in your argument to decide the quality of a name?" Amya asked which made Alasdair think. "He likes any name; he'd call his son Gertrude for Pete's sake!"

Emerson nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, that's true." He agreed.

"Oh well, it's still an awesome name." Alasdair declared.

"Whatever, just get us to Belgium!" Amya snapped.

"All right, all right…" Alasdair said. "There's no need to be so aggressive."

"Actually, there kind of is, we needed to go to Belgium and you brought us to freakin' Cadbury World!" Amya replied, her voice starting to rise above the normal level.

"Well we might want to go now; we seem to be attracting some attention." Ryker pointed out. He was right; a man in a black suit had a radio to his ear and was staring at them with a look of confusion on his face. Emerson figured he was probably calling for back-up.

"Good idea, we don't wanna get into a fight in Cadbury World, it's a place of love, not war." Emerson decided. "But before we go, I've gotta do something." And with that he turned and ran down a corridor.

There was silence for a while until Amya broke it,

"What the heck is he doing?!" Amya demanded once she had recovered from the initial shock.

"I have no idea." Alasdair replied. "What do we do now?"

"I know where he's going." Jeremy said and everyone looked at him. "Well think about it, this is Emerson right and we're in Cadbury World, where would you go if you were him?"

"I don't know." Alasdair insisted.

"I do." Ryker answered and Amya and Alasdair looked at him. "This is Emerson in Cadbury World."

"Oh." Amya said as the realisation dawned on her.

"What?" Alasdair asked, still not getting it.

"I hope you've been to the shop." Amya said.

"Well of course I have, you don't go to Cadbury World without going to the shop. Why?"

"Where else would Emerson go?" Amya asked.

"Oh, right, yeah…" Alasdair said. "I guess that is pretty obvious…"

"Shall we go then, or are we just gonna stand here awkwardly?" Ryker asked.

"Oh, yeah. Of course, grab on." Alasdair said and they disappeared.

**A/N: And that's chapter 16! I've been thinking about doing chapter names for each of my chapters, so I'm probably going to spend a bit of time doing that. It shouldn't take too long cause it probably won't be too hard to think them up, but still it might mean the next chapter I releases will be in a bit more time. As I said, this was quite quick and I should continue writing at a similar speed (hopefully, but not guaranteed). I really enjoy writing this and it's so nice to see that at least one other person does too (thanks Anatasia) so please review, it genuinely warms my heart. Thanks so much for reading.**

**Mangobean.**


	18. Chapter 17-Asking For Entry

**Chapter 17**

They appeared at the shop to see Emerson already there. He had a large plastic bag and was stuffing chocolate from everywhere in the shop. A security guard who was also in the shop was watching Emerson closely, obviously sure he would steal it all since no man would be able to pay for everything he was collecting.

Just as Emerson grabbed a large chocolate in the shape of a hippo, Ryker clamped his arm on his shoulder. Emerson spun round immediately and smiled as if he was pleased to see them.

"Hi guys, I was just going to the shop." He tried but they looked unimpressed. "Want a bar?" he asked hopefully and held out a one kilogram bar.

"Shotgun!" Alasdair shouted and grabbed it.

Meanwhile the security guard seemed to be calling for back-up. Emerson glanced at him cautiously.

"Could you, by any chance…" Emerson started but paused.

"Could we what?" Amya prompted.

"Get me out of here…"

"Well obviously." Amya said. "Why else would we come to get you, it's not as if we wanted to come to the shop."

"Actually…" Jeremy chipped in but was cut off by Emerson.

"With the chocolate?"

"I'm sorry what?!" Amya asked her voice showing signs of annoyance.

"Could you get me out of here with the chocolate?" Emerson pleaded.

"No way!" Amya snapped back. "We are most certainly not helping you steal this chocolate."

"Keep your voice down." Emerson said as the security guard was walking slowly towards them, obviously back-up was on its way.

"We're not helping you steal this chocolate." Amya repeated quieter.

"I'll get you out." Alasdair said.

"Thank you so much." Emerson said gratefully and Amya glared at the Jumper.

"But on one condition." Alasdair continued.

"Ok, sure, whatever you want." Emerson agreed wholeheartedly.

"You share your chocolate with me."

"And me." Jeremy said quickly.

"Ok, you share your chocolate with me and Jeremy." Alasdair corrected himself but saw Ryker's blank, deadpan and scarily unsettling expression. "And of course Ryker." He added quickly.

"You want me to share my chocolate with you?" Emerson asked in disbelief.

"Either that and I get you out of here, or you get arrested and your chocolate gets taken away from you. Which will it be?" Alasdair asked. "Hurry up, your time is running out." He taunted and indeed he was correct as the guard was coming closer and they could hear voices and footsteps from not far away which were obviously from back-up.

"Ok, ok. I'll give you some of my chocolate; just help me take a bit more." Emerson said caving in and Alasdair, and then Jeremy started to take some more chocolate from the shelves.

"They obviously don't think we'll be able to get out." Alasdair said, indicating the guard who was walking towards them at a leisurely pace.

"Well, where would we go?" Emerson asked and Alasdair shrugged.

"Fair point, but they still don't have to be so cocky."

"Well I'd love to stay and teach them a lesson, but it may be easier said than done." Emerson said, indicating the back-up that was running into the shop. Obviously the back-up called by the security guard in the shop had joined with the back-up that had been called earlier as there was an abnormally large amount to take down five people.

"Where is it you want to go?" Alasdair asked in his best chauffeur impression.

"Take us home, so we can unload this stuff and you can look at a map again." Emerson said, saying the last few words acidly.

"You're the boss." Alasdair said and everyone grabbed hold.

They appeared in the kitchen of the Tate's house and Emerson started forward immediately and placed the chocolate on the counter, Jeremy and Alasdair did the same.

"Right, well Amya, if you go through the map with Alasdair, we'll have a go starting off the chocolate." Emerson suggested, picked up a bar, ripped of the wrapper and bit of a large chunk.

"I'm still eating some chocolate." Alasdair grumbled, grabbed the map off the counter and sat down at the table. Amya moved over and sat down next to him.

After a thorough study of the map of the world and a significant amount of chocolate, they were ready to go again. Amya had gone through exactly where Belgium was and exactly where, in Belgium they were supposed to be going and then after she had done that, she did it again three more times. Emerson didn't even have to ask for them to go; he just put down his half eaten overly large chocolate bar and stood up, Jeremy and Ryker doing the same. They grabbed on and were in Belgium.

They were on a small hill in the countryside; in front of them was a large castle, The Miranda Castle to be exact. It seemed completely deserted except Angelo Scraper's car, Angela's motor bike and a Range Rover. They had arrived a fair distance away and hoped to be out of sight.

"Just a quick question..." Alasdair queried. "What exactly is our plan?"

"Hahaha, yeah, wouldn't that be great." Emerson laughed genuinely and led the way down to the castle gate.

"Wait, so we don't have a plan?" Alasdair asked Amya in disbelief. "He expects us just to follow him blindly down into a trap without thinking it through at all."

"Yes." Amya confirmed and followed behind Emerson. Ryker followed without question and Jeremy shrugged and trudged along behind them. This left just Alasdair standing by himself his face ridden with disbelief.

"We are crazy." He muttered and walked off after the others.

Amya slowed her pace a bit so she was walking level with Jeremy.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked her face full of concern.

"Yeah, of course. I didn't come this far to back down at the confrontation, that's like watching the entire of the film 300 and then skipping the final fight scenes." Jeremy replied and Amya laughed.

"Ok, just wanted to make sure. It's probably going to get quite violent."

"I'm a teenage boy, I love violence. Besides, I've exploded a car, witnessed someone getting hit by a shark and watched as you guys beat up some German thugs." Jeremy said.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up. Ok, but stay close, if you get injured, Caiden will not be happy." Amya warned him and began to speed up to catch up with Emerson.

Jeremy stayed at his same pace, thinking to himself about the past few days and how much things had changed. He was so deep in thought he almost didn't notice when they stopped at the foot of the castle and Emerson banged his fist on the front door.

"That was kind of unneeded; they must know we're here already." Amya said.

"Yeah, I know, but I just thought I might be polite." Emerson replied.

They heard footsteps and a few metal bars being pulled across. The door swung open to reveal Angelo Scraper, his features lit up in a smile when he saw them, he looked so happy that Emerson was afraid he would try and embrace them.

"Oh, isn't this wonderful. Everyone's here." The Tex exclaimed. "I'm sure Tate Senior is going to be overjoyed, I think he needs other company. I'm not sure he really enjoys the conversations he has with us as much as the one's he's had with sane people, could be something to do with us being psychopaths…" he wondered scratching his head.

"Hmmm, could be." Emerson agreed.

"But anyway, you're not here to hear me natter all day are you?" Angelo asked. "No of course not, you're here for your brother; I guess you aren't leaving without him and all that stuff, blah blah blah."

"If you wouldn't mind?" Emerson asked.

"Hmmmm, I'm not sure. I'll have to clear it with the boss." Angelo wondered. "Would you mind waiting here for a minute, I'll go and get him."

"Sure, take all the time you need." Emerson replied cheerily.

"Thanks a bunch." Angelo said and turned wandering off into the castle, leaving the doors wide open. Emerson just stood outside whistling a tune to himself while he waited for Angelo to get back.

"I'm sorry, but are we actually waiting for him to get back?" Alasdair asked Emerson fearing the answer.

"Uhuh." Emerson replied.

"So we're not going to take this prefect opportunity to just walk in and do what we came here to do?"

"No."

"May I ask why not?" Alasdair asked.

"You just did." Emerson pointed out.

"Ok, but why not?"

"Because that would be rude." Emerson explained. "You wouldn't like it if someone just strolled into your house just because you left the door open would you."

"Well I wouldn't leave the door open." Alasdair replied.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't like it if you did."

"Well, I guess not… but I thought we were trying to get your brother back and take down these people that captured him." Alasdair said.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be polite." Emerson replied and Alasdair looked confused. He was about to say something else, but they heard footsteps and Angelo appeared once more in the doorway.

"I am terribly sorry," He said apologetically. "But the boss said that we aren't allowed to hand your brother over to you at this time, maybe you could come back later? He did say however that you are more than welcome to go and join him." Angelo said happily.

"Hmmm, well we only really came here to fetch Caiden, so I'm not sure if we can really stay," Emerson said.

"Oh no, the boss was very insistent, he said I should ask nicely." Angelo explained.

"What did he say to do if we said no?" Emerson asked curiously.

"He said that if you were horribly stubborn, I should stop asking nicely."

"And then what?"

"And then hold a gun to your face and ask you a bit less nicely." Angelo said and his hand whipped out and grabbed the revolver into his hand.

If he hadn't told Emerson what he was going to do, it would be over there and then and Angelo would escort them inside with the gun pointed at Emerson's face. However as it was, Emerson had pretty fast reactions so even before Angelo had finished his sentence, Emerson was already moving to intercept the inevitable.

Emerson batted Angelo's hand away so the gun flew out and started spinning across the floor. Emerson then lifted up his leg and solidly kicked Angelo so that he flew backwards onto the floor. However as soon as he saw Emerson moving, he knew what was going to happen so while he was in the air with speed like a snake he whipped out his other revolver and his finger closed on the trigger.

Amya acted at once when she saw Angelo flying backwards she readied herself and when he reached for his gun she was already pulling with the air. It flew through the air towards her spinning so that the shot went right up into the ceiling. Angelo skidded backwards across the floor now unarmed, his head cracking down on the solid stone surface. Amya caught the revolver and pointed it straight at Angelo's head.

"Great, now I don't have either of my babies and you even have one pointing at my face, this is not how this was supposed to go. Do you know how demoralising it is to have your own pride and joy pointed at you by a pretty woman when you were supposed to be pointing it at them?"

"Honestly, no." Emerson replied.

Amya reached out her other hand and used the air to pull the other gun into her hand but just as it left the ground it was kicked right out of the air by a misshapen foot and Angelo leapt up and caught it. Amya recovered and aimed quickly with her new gun firing at where Angelo had just spun out of the way hiding behind the cover of the wall.

They waited but nothing happened, neither side made a move.

"Do you think we should just leave and come back later or something?" Alasdair whispered. "We don't even know how many of them are behind there."

"Good idea, I say we find a hotel and rest for a bit, and then come back tomorrow." Emerson agreed in a hushed tone and Amya nodded.

"Sure, at least we now know that most of them are here." She said and they grabbed hold of Alasdair who teleported and they were gone.

Sickening walked out from behind the wall with Angela behind and sighed, "Well we'd better be ready for them tomorrow." He said.

"They took my baby." Angelo said in dismay.

"Yeah." Sickening agreed.

"I'm gonna to make them squeal for that." Angelo decided. "So, who's up for a game of cards?"

**A/N: Chapter 17! It's not much, but at least it's here right? As you can see, I wrote this chapter reasonably quickly, the next should hopefully be the same. I have some idea of what I'm going to do for the next few chapters or so, but then there's a huge blank spot where I don't really have any ideas, help would be so much appreciated. The next chapter should hopefully be a bit more exciting and probably violent, I guess you'll see. Thanks so much for reading, please review, I would love you so much if you did. Thanks,**

**Mangobean. **


	19. Chapter 18-Deciding on a 'Plan'

**Chapter 18**

"So how are we going to get in?" Alasdair asked. They were in a hotel, which was near the castle. It turned out that Amya was not only fluent in German, but also in French, so she easily got them booked into the hotel. Alasdair and Emerson had a room, Jeremy was with Ryker and Amya was on her own. They'd stayed one night and were getting ready for the next day, planning what they would do.

"We'll use your natural charm and skills of persuasion to get them to let us in." Emerson answered convincingly.

"Seriously?" Alasdair asked hopefully.

"Dear god no, we'll get you to teleport us onto the roof and then climb through a window or something." Emerson said casually.

"Oh. Well I guess it'd be pointless to waste my charm at such a time as this.

"Oh, no that isn't what I meant. You don't have any charm." Emerson said pointedly.

"Oh… thanks." Alasdair said completely put down.

"That's alright." Emerson replied cheerfully.

There was a knock at the door and Amya walked in with the others just behind. Amya took a seat on the bed and the other two stood up each leaning against something.

"Where did you put Scraper's gun?" Emerson asked Amya.

"I handed it into lost property at the reception desk." She said and Emerson laughed.

"Genuinely?" he asked in disbelief.

"Genuinely." She replied. "So do we have any plan of what to do today?" she asked.

"We're gonna use my natural charm and skills of persuasion to get inside." Alasdair explained seriously.

"Hahaha, but really how are we supposed to get inside?" Amya asked again.

"Why is that so far-fetched?" Alasdair asked disbelievingly.

"Because you don't possess a single thread of charm." Amya explained.

"Hey! I do! I have heaps of charm! I have mountains of charm!" Alasdair insisted.

"No you don't. You kind of have more mole hills of charm, or slight bulges of mud of charm." Amya replied mockingly and Emerson laughed, Alasdair just sat back on his bed and began to sulk.

"Ok, so what's the actual plan?" Amya asked Emerson.

"Alasdair teleports us up to the roof and we go through a window." Emerson explained and Amya pondered the idea.

"I guess that could work…" she decided. "But I suggest that we go up on different parts of the roof and go in different windows in different parts of the castle."

"That's a lot of differents." Jeremy muttered.

"So you're suggesting we split up?" Emerson asked.

"I am. If we spread around our 'entrances' then we can spread the love and instead of them working together and completely destroying us, they'll destroy us individually."

"Yeah, much better than getting humiliated in front of you guys, I love getting annihilated on my own." Emerson said happily. "It gives me a sense of achievement, shows that I _can_ do things on my own."

"Right…" Alasdair said, not sure how to react. "Ummmm, yeah I guess it's our best bet, we might as well. What are we gonna do when we get in there?"

"We need to find Caiden obviously so once we're in, we go looking for him. If we can, apprehend one of the Bloody Murderers and force them to tell us." Amya explained.

"Alright, do you guys have anything to add?" Emerson asked Ryker and Jeremy. Ryker grunted, shaking his head.

"Just one thing." Jeremy said and Emerson nodded for him to go ahead. "Will I be going in on my own, or what?"

"Well, if you all go in on your own," Emerson started indicating the other three. "Then you come with me."

Jeremy nodded. "Alright, I'll stop you from getting shot."

Emerson grinned. "Oh, of course. If need be, I'll use you as a meat shield." Emerson assured him.

"Great, so we're decided." Amya said. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, meet downstairs in the lobby in fifteen minutes." Amya turned and left the room leaving the four guys.

They sat there in silence, none of them with any clue of how to break the awkwardness. Alasdair coughed in a pitiful attempt to make it less awkward, but it did the exact opposite. Finally Alasdair couldn't take it anymore; he muttered something inaudible and disappeared, leaving the other three alone, the awkwardness building up. Emerson cursed quietly to himself, silently wishing he could do the same.

Emerson glanced at the other two. Ryker was standing there calmly, not seeming at all awkward; Jeremy on the other hand was the opposite. He was trying to be casual by leaning against the wall, but was failing miserable. He was fidgeting and looked around, every so often coughing or yawning to try and make it less awkward, it really wasn't working.

"Do you do this kind of thing often?" Jeremy asked Emerson, desperately trying to break the ice.

"Well… I like to say I've done my fair share of this kind of thing. Not as much as Caiden used to, but I have done a reasonable amount of 'work' for people." Emerson explained.

"Right, right…" Jeremy said. "Well I'm in safe hands then." He said laughing nervously and Emerson gave him a supporting smile, more out of sympathy than anything else. The room descended back into awkward silence.

"We might as well go downstairs." Ryker said and Emerson nodded.

"Yes, of course. Good idea."

Emerson opened the door and held it open so Jeremy could walk through, as Ryker went through, Emerson looked at him in deep gratitude and Ryker just nodded.

When they reached the lobby, Alasdair was already there, he was looking at a shelf of souvenirs by the door. He looked up when they entered.

"Ah, sorry about that, I just really wanted to have a proper look at these wonderful souvenirs." He said.

"It's fine, we didn't even notice you were gone." Emerson said reassuringly but the look in his eyes was about as reassuring as an angry beaver.

"Glad to see you understand." Alasdair smiled back and Emerson's eyes turned a much darker shade of blue.

"Amya isn't down yet then?" Jeremy asked, noticing Emerson's expression and desperately trying to stop a fight before it started.

"Not yet, no." Alasdair replied.

At that moment Amya appeared in the stairwell wearing what seemed to be clothes fit for battle, a black leather jacket and tightly fitting leather trousers and Jeremy almost cried out in gratitude.

"Ah, Amya. Here you are." Jeremy said stating the obvious.

"That's opinionated." Emerson muttered thoughtfully.

"No, it isn't." Amya said frowning at Emerson's comment.

"That's also opinionated." Emerson said again.

"No, it's not, that isn't got anything to do with being opinionated." Alasdair said also frowning and now Emerson himself frowned thoughtfully.

"It could be…" he said stubbornly.

"Do you even know what opinionated means?"

"Haven't the foggiest." Emerson replied simply.

"So why would you say that that was opinionated if you don't know what it means?" Amya asked.

"Well I just thought that it sounded as if it was opinionated." Emerson explained and Amya frowned even more.

"So you're saying that it sounded opinionated when you don't know what opinionated means?" Amya asked, completely stumped by Emerson's logic.

"Yes." Emerson said decidedly happy. "Although actually maybe not because if…" he started, but stopped again looking completely baffled by his own logic, Jeremy couldn't blame him.

"Well, if that moment of complete insanity has passed, shall we be off?" Alasdair asked and Amya nodded.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." She led the way towards the door with Ryker, Alasdair and Jeremy behind her leaving Emerson to stand there alone in the lobby like a lost duckling still thinking about his new found wisdom. After twenty seconds or so, Jeremy came back through the door and led Emerson back out with him.

"Ok, so we have our plan, is everyone ok with it?" Emerson asked having finally recovered from his slight mental break down. They were waiting about a mile away from the castle having one final discussion.

"No, not in the slightest." Alasdair replied.

"Great so we're sorted…" Emerson started but then realised what Alasdair had said. "I'm sorry what? What's wrong with the plan, it's fool-proof."

"We're going to try and get in through the windows separately in broad daylight. You don't think they might have security cameras or something?" Alasdair explained and Emerson shook his head.

"No, it's fine cause we'll sneak in like ninjas, they'll never see us coming." Emerson replied. "The plan's amazing, there's nothing wrong with it at all."

"Actually it's really not, it's a terrible plan and there are thousands of things that could and most likely will go wrong." Amya said much to Emerson's dismay.

"It isn't that bad." Emerson insisted.

"Yes, it really is. In fact in my entire life, I've only ever seen a few that have been worse." Amya said and Emerson looked ready to cry.

"If it's so bad, then why have you agreed to it?" Alasdair asked her.

"Because it's the only plan we have and to be honest, I was getting pretty desperate."

"Great, well that's done wonders to my self-esteem, thanks a bunch." Emerson said sulkily.

"Glad I could help." Amya replied happily and she abruptly walked off, Ryker immediately followed her as if he knew she was going to randomly walk away. Alasdair recovered quickly and followed them, Jeremy shrugged to Emerson and the followed after the others.

"We'd better split up now." Amya said, they were now only a few hundred meters away from the castle, Ryker nodded and turned, beginning his walk around the side of the castle, where he was going to enter.

"Bye." Alasdair said and disappeared, he would reappear around the other side of the castle where he was going to enter.

"I'll go on the left, you two go on the right." Amya said to the others, indicating the side of the castle facing them.

"Yeah, alright." Emerson said. "See you in a few hours," he said and she nodded. "probably…" he added.

"Be optimistic." She scowled.

"No way, I've always found being a pessimist is much better, that way you don't get disappointed when you're caught and tortured." Emerson insisted and Amya just rolled her eyes.

"Trust you to be the happy one." She muttered. "Well stay safe." She said and turned to walk off.

"Amya." Emerson called after her and she stopped and turned again.

"Uhuh?"

"If you see Scraper, direct him over to me please?" He asked and Amya smiled.

"Of course." She said and walked off.

After a moment of silence as they watched Amya go, Emerson looked up at the massive castle in front of them.

"I hope you have some funny stories to tell me, this is gonna take a while." He said.

**A/N: I'm so sorry!I just put so many exclamation marks, it was a ridiculous idea, it looks really stupid now. But honestly I am so sorry I took so long to update, I just wasn't writing at all. To be fair, I was in France for nine days, but still I could've updated other times. I know this is such an anticlimactic and short chapter, it's really boring, basically just a filler but the next one should be more interesting and exciting… hopefully. I haven't really been doing my writing from anyone's perspective so far, no 1****st**** person, and the thoughts all switch. But that's my writing style so… meh. Thanks so much for reading, please review, it really brightens up my day and do whatever else you want with my story… except copying it (Hahaha, like someone would do that) if you did that, I'd come and rip your balls off, thanks.**

**Mangobean.**


	20. Chapter 19-Splitting Up

**Chapter 19**

"So we know that they're going to attack, but we don't exactly know how?" Sickening asked Angelo.

"Yes, basically." Angelo confirmed. The Scrapers, Sickening and Archie were all sitting at a table and Angelo was describing the situation. Sickening was asking questions, Archie was sitting silently listening; he obviously had nothing to contribute. Angela was sitting playing with one of her throwing knife, no-one was quite sure if she was paying attention or actually listening, and to be honest, they didn't really care, but Angelo knew she'd do her part. "Maelicen has tasked us to stop whatever feeble attempt they do try so we've each gotta be patrolling around the castle, if we see someone…"

"Then we raise the alarm, I guessed." Sickening interrupted.

"Actually I was gonna say beat the crap out of them, but I guess that works too." Angelo said shrugging. "Chances are they'll probably be splitting up or something stupid like that so we'll each be able to take whoever."

"When's creepy coming?" Sickening asked.

"Soon." Angelo said. "Well… supposedly. Ok, so if Archie, you patrol the east side." He said and Archie grunted in reply. "Sickening you do the west side…"

"Yeah, alright." Sickening replied, interrupting Angelo and Angelo frowned, not sure why he felt the need to interrupt, but he carried on.

"Angela, you go south and I'll do the north side." Angelo concluded and Angela didn't reply Angelo had no clue if she'd heard him, but he shrugged. What was the worst that could happen anyway? He thought to himself, and then realised that actually the worst that could happen was probably pretty bad, he shrugged again mentally, meh, he wasn't one for caring much about things.

"Right, we might as well start now, but remember, these are desperate people we're up against, so we shouldn't underestimate their stupidity." Angelo said and everyone started to get up, much to Angelo's relief, Angela put her knife away and started towards the door. Everyone but Angelo left, to leave the Texan sitting at his chair alone. 'Come on then Emerson Tate.' He thought. 'Let's see what you've got.'

"How are we actually going to get up to the roof to get in?" Jeremy asked Emerson. They'd just reached the foot of the castle, and were now staring up at the giant wall in front of them.

Emerson frowned thoughtfully at the question. "That's quite a good question…" he said. "I never really thought about that…"

"You didn't think of that?" Jeremy asked in disbelief. "Surely that's the most important thing of this entire plan?"

"Nah…" Emerson insisted. "OK so maybe a little bit, but I'm sure we can improvise." Emerson stared up at the wall, his last hope rapidly receding.

"We could try and get in through another way?" Jeremy suggested.

"Well if we can't get in there," Emerson started, indicating the roof. "Then I guess we'll have to." They both hesitated. "I'm sure we could find a way." Emerson said and they both went quiet.

"I have an idea." Jeremy said, breaking the silence. "We could go through the door?" Jeremy suggested and Emerson laughed.

"Yeah, we could ask them very nicely to let us in." Emerson joked, laughing not very quietly to himself.

"No, I didn't mean we should knock again, I'm not that thick, I meant you could, kind of… destroy it?" Jeremy explained and Emerson frowned. "You have magic right?" Jeremy asked and Emerson nodded. "Well couldn't you just destroy the door?"

Emerson thought for a moment then his mouth formed into a grin. "You want me to destroy the door?" he asked excitedly.

"That was my idea... the others will hopefully be distracting them around other parts of the castle so we probably won't come up against anyone really." Jeremy prompted.

"I think that could be within my capabilities…" Emerson said, his grin widening more and more.

"Well it'd better be." Jeremy muttered quietly.

Emerson began to lead the way to the door and he muttered to himself thrilled, "I'm going to destroy the door; I bet the others aren't doing anything nearly as awesome."

Amya was in fact doing nothing of the sort, and she was most definitely not thrilled. She'd launched herself up onto the roof with some air and her ascent was not as smooth as she'd hoped. When she'd launched herself up, the air had shot her straight up towards the ledge but she'd misjudged and she kept going up as she flew past it.

A few seconds after, she stopped going up and started falling back again. When she did land on the edge, she landed hard and she could tell that she'd twisted her ankle. Now she was crawling around the roof looking for a possible entrance below her, a window or something. She realised that she probably should've launched herself up to a window from the ground, but that was out of the question now, she couldn't go back down and risk another hard landing.

There, she thought. She could see what she hoped was a window. It was probably about seventy metres or so away. Great, she thought.

After about five minutes of awkward crawling later, she was above what she could now confirm was an old window. She lay down to rest and gather her thoughts for a few seconds and then sat up. Firstly she ripped the window from its old hinges with the air and it fell to the ground far below. Now for the harder part.

She positioned herself so that she was facing away from the edge and stepped backwards. She fell, quickly at first but immediately she brought the air up to slow her descent until she stopped directly in front of the recently opened window. Finally, she thought, the first piece of luck she'd had that entire day.

She used the air to slowly guide her through the space and she dropped, luckily not very far and slumped against the wall. Phew, she thought, she was in. She wondered how the others were faring, couldn't be nearly as bad as her, she reckoned.

Alasdair had, in fact, fared a lot better than Amya. When he'd left, he'd 'jumped' straight to his side of the castle. He reckoned it would most likely be pretty simple for him to get in, he was a Jumper, he could go pretty much wherever he wanted. Something like this was easy, it was basically his job.

As it turned out, his job was a lot more difficult than he'd expected. He couldn't find a single place to see through into the castle so he could 'jump' inside. Why didn't this place have any windows? He thought. He'd gone up to the roof and looked pretty much everywhere up there, he'd looked all around the walls from the ground, nothing.

He could see where windows had been, but they'd been knocked out and replaced with wooden planks so he couldn't see through to the other side. It was at times like this when he thought about how annoying and ridiculous his power could be. He could go anywhere he'd been or seen but put a freakin wall in the way and he's stuffed.

It was amazing how something so obvious and normal could stop him, he almost felt like going to get something to eat for a while, but no, he couldn't abandon his friends to fight all on their own while he went away just to get a bite to eat.

He appeared back with a cup of coffee and a cookie from Starbucks and continued his searching for an entrance. He looked everywhere but couldn't see any entrance. Then it hit him, all he had to do was see inside, then he'd be able to 'jump' inside, all he needed was a hole, just one small hole in the wall. He resumed his searching with an entirely new determination. This was a seriously old castle, there had to be at least one hole somewhere, he thought.

Then he saw it. It wasn't very big at all, only about the size of a tennis ball, but it'd be fine. He was suddenly there, bending down and looking through the hole to the other side. He could see a small, empty room with one entrance, a wooden door on the left side. He suddenly disappeared and appeared in the room. He was inside, finally. He wondered how the others were doing.

Ryker had easily been the best off of all of them; he'd got in very quickly. Once he'd made his way around to his side of the castle, he'd jogged and it hadn't taken long. He had decided not to use his shadows to carry him around; it would take too much energy. Straight away he used the shadows to carry him up onto the roof and the first thing he saw was a huge hole.

He didn't have a clue what might have caused it, but he didn't really care at all, he was in, that was all that mattered. Below him was an empty room with an old wooden door across from him. The shadows lowered him down to the floor and almost immediately he heard movement from outside the door. He flung himself forwards just as the door opened, he landed behind the opened door as Sickening strode in.

The creature swung the door shut behind him and as soon as Sickening was in the open, Ryker leapt forwards and wrapped his arms around Sickening's neck in a choke hold. The creature tried to cry out in surprise but Ryker's hand muffled the noise. Sickening struggled madly and clawed at Ryker's arms with his long nails, but Ryker held on, his grip staying firm.

Soon Sickening's struggles got weaker and after not too long, they stopped completely. Ryker figured he must be unconscious and so let go, the limp figure falling to the ground. Almost as soon as he hit the ground, Sickening sprung back up, obviously faking unconsciousness. Ryker, seemingly unable to be surprised, kicked his leg out, catching Sickening in the chest and flinging him backwards.

He hit the door with a thud and Ryker was there, picking him up and chucking him against another wall. Just as he was getting up again, Ryker thrust his arms forward and the huge wall of shadows that he had been collecting flew forward, catching Sickening in the chest and knocking him off his feet. This time, he didn't get up.

Ryker walked over to Sickening's once more limp body and prodded it with his foot. He then lifted up his head and brought it down violently onto the floor, the body remained limp. Finally satisfied, he turned and approached the door.

**A/N: As you can see, I had fun switching points of view in this chapter. So everyone's in, well we don't actually know about Emerson and Jeremy, but this is Emerson we're talking about, I think he can destroy a little door. Granted, it isn't that little; and I guess it probably isn't really a door… oh well! Thanks so much for reading, please review, I'd appreciate it so much if you do, even if you say it's crap, I'm open to criticism… mostly. Thanks so much.**

**Mangobean.**


	21. Chapter 20-Fighting the Earth

**Chapter 20**

Emerson was very proud of himself after he'd destroyed the door; in fact very proud was probably an understatement. As Jeremy had noticed, he couldn't stop talking about it.

"But when it just exploded open, that was me, I did that. And the fact that it looked so easy." He was very, very proud of himself.

"I know, it was fantastic." Jeremy agreed, less than half-heartedly for perhaps the thirteenth time that minute. They were strolling through the castle, going down different corridors and through random doors. They didn't have a clue where they were going; they just hoped they'd find something helpful.

At first Jeremy had tried to keep Emerson quiet but quickly realised that it wasn't going to happen as whenever he asked him to talk quieter, Emerson would just ignore him and keep talking at the same volume. They hadn't come across anyone yet, Jeremy wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, he decided it was.

"And then we just strolled through, as if nothing had happened." Emerson continued.

"I know, I was there." Jeremy pointed out and then frowned, "Actually you kept saying how awesome you thought it was." He corrected but Emerson seemed not to notice.

"I really have to do it again, it was so awesome."

"Yep, that's pretty much what you said." Jeremy agreed and Emerson scowled at him.

"Alright, you don't have to be so aggressive about it." He said taken aback and Jeremy just laughed. "Stop." Emerson said suddenly and yanked Jeremy back, round the corner they'd just turned. Jeremy tried to protest but Emerson had his hand over the younger boy's mouth.

Jeremy just rolled his eyes and then he heard it too, heavy footsteps. They were coming closer and Jeremy had no doubt that they would be owned by a sufficiently nasty individual. Jeremy nodded, confirming that he heard them too and Emerson took his hand away.

Emerson gestured round the corner and mouthed something and Jeremy frowned, not understanding. Emerson tried again but Jeremy still frowned. Emerson rolled his eyes.

He whispered. "When he gets close, I'll jump out and take him down. Hopefully I'll catch him by surprise and everything will go well. You stay here out of sight; I don't want him murdering you before I get a chance to take him out. Ok?"

Jeremy nodded in affirmation.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, Jeremy had a desperate urge to see who it was. They definitely belonged to a large man, each one made a loud, thundering noise. They were evenly spaced and not very frequent, obviously they were taking their time.

Jeremy saw a flicker of movement and at once, Emerson flung himself out at the man. Everything didn't go well. Archie Bellows seemed unable to be caught by surprise which was ridiculous as when Emerson jumped out, even Jeremy jumped. As soon as Emerson leaped out, Archie just stepped back out of the way and thrust his leg forward, the kick catching Emerson full in the stomach and flinging him into a wall.

Emerson grunted in pain when he hit the wall and looked up at his opponent. The huge man was standing above him pointing a huge shotgun right in his face. Archie cocked the massive weapon.

Emerson frowned. "Well this seems a bit unfair." Archie grinned and Emerson could see all the spaces where teeth had been knocked out over the years. "Would you mind awfully just giving me the gun, you see I'm supposed to be rescuing my brother, thwarting your plans and beating up Angelo in a sec and you're gonna make me late?" Archie shook his head, still grinning, his finger hovering over the trigger. Emerson licked his lips and lifted his hand slightly, Archie frowned and the stream hit him.

The giant flew backwards, grunting in surprise, down the hallway that he'd just come up. The gun flew from his hands and clattered to the ground. Archie hit the ground hard and continue moving, skidding backwards across the stone floor. Emerson wondered when and how he would stop, he was answered when the giant crashed, hard into the far door, his head smacking against the stone.

Emerson flinched in sympathy, grimacing at the crack of his opponent's head against stone. Much to Emerson's surprise and disappointment, Archie did something that Emerson thought would be near impossible… he got up. Archie got up slowly and steadily, obviously in pain, but still conscious.

He started walking forwards, slowly at first, in what was obviously agonising pain, but as he got further he started to speed up, the pain slowly fading from his face. Emerson frowned, studying him more closely; it seemed as if his bones were fixing themselves, everything going back to its original position, mending him.

Emerson stared at the huge man in disbelief; he was healing himself, how? And then something caught his eye; Emerson looked down and saw it. Archie Bellow's legs were absorbing something from the ground. It was almost as if earth was seeping up into his legs, slowly absorbing into his body and healing him. Earth Mastery, Emerson realised. Archie Bellows was using the earth from the ground, through the stones to heal himself, unfair, how come Emerson's magic couldn't do that.

Archie had broken into a run now and was charging towards Emerson like a crazed wild boar. Emerson came forward to meet him, bracing himself for a collision. He was ready to leap up and catch Archie full in the chest with a kick which he hoped would break a few ribs. Archie was now closing the gap between them much quicker than Emerson thought would be possible for a man of his size.

Emerson glimpsed something, Archie's face; it almost seemed as if it was glistening with earth. Then he noticed it. Wherever Archie's feet came into contact with the ground, the stone cracked and gave way. He realised, but it was too late. As Archie was about to collide with him, he tried to twist out the way, but Archie was coming in too fast.

When Archie hit him, it was like being hit by two tonne rhinoceros, and Emerson knew exactly what that was like. Emerson could feel bones braking in his body, he didn't know which ones, but he figured some of them must be important. Emerson again crashed into the wall and groaned but quickly realised groaning hurt so stopped.

Archie too crashed into the wall next to him but the only thing that was damaged was the wall. Emerson tried to move, but it hurt too much so he just stayed where he was, lying on the ground. Archie got out from the wall and shook himself off, like a wet dog, a giant, vicious, evil wet dog from hell, Emerson decided.

Archie stood over Emerson triumphantly. "Now where have I seen this before…?" Emerson muttered and Archie grinned. "Except there is one difference…" Emerson mused. "Let's see if you can spot it?"

Archie frowned and got shot. Obviously Archie's 'earth skin' hadn't lasted as when the shotgun blew into his back, he flew forwards, his back already bleeding profusely. Now it was his turn again to hit the wall, Emerson had to move out the way to avoid the massive limp body. This time the giant didn't get up, he lay there groaning.

Jeremy sat on the floor a few yards in front of Emerson loosely holding the shotgun. Emerson raised his eyebrows and Jeremy smiled dryly. "I wasn't expecting that much recoil." He said and Emerson smiled and then grimaced in pain.

Jeremy got up immediately and rushed over to his friend.

"Where does it hurt?" he asked and Emerson smiled.

"Where doesn't it hurt, I think is the better question."

"Ok where doesn't it hurt?"

"Nowhere." Emerson grinned and then thought better of it. "Where'd you learn to shoot a gun?" Emerson asked, trying to take his mind off the pain.

"Call of Duty." Jeremy said embarrassed and Emerson smiled.

"Just think how many other people like you play that game." Emerson marvelled. "What is technology teaching the world? Soon we're all going to have millions of violent, teenage maniacs rampaging through towns and cities armed with assault rifles and machetes."

"Actually there aren't really machetes in COD, more…knives." Jeremy muttered and Emerson raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but machetes are more awesome."

Jeremy thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah… that's actually a great idea; machetes in COD would be so awesome!"

Emerson rolled his eyes. "Wow… teenagers." He muttered, shaking his head. Then, grimacing, he slowly and shakily got up, Jeremy supporting him every inch of the way. He started limping down the corridor, with Jeremy supporting him, towards the cracked and slightly ruined door.

"What, are you saying you've never played Call of Duty?" Jeremy asked; the disbelief in his voice all too evident.

"Of course I have, but I also think about and do other things." Emerson replied.

"Well yes obviously, so do I." Jeremy retorted.

"Really? Like what?" Emerson asked and Jeremy looked as if he was about to reply but then he frowned.

"Well… I…" Jeremy tried. "I watch TV."

Emerson snorted. "Yeah, cause that's much better. You teenagers should try and do things outside for a change, like play sport."

"I do go outside." Jeremy insisted and Emerson raised an eyebrow.

"Walking to and from your car doesn't count."

"No, I do actually do stuff outside." Jeremy said, his voice becoming more confident. "Every Saturday, I play football with some of my mates."

"Football?" Emerson asked his face screwed up in disgust. "Why not cricket?"

"I hate cricket, there's way too much standing around, it's boring." Jeremy explained.

"If I ever hear you say that again, I will end your face." Emerson threatened and Jeremy smiled but then saw the completely blank expression on Emerson's face and realised he might not be joking. He quickly amended his expression to something more solemn and nodded seriously.

Emerson and Jeremy continued down the corridor, Emerson reckoned that through the door at the end, they'd be able to continue further into the castle and hopefully come across where Caiden was being held prisoner.

"What do we do now?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, I suggest we go further into the castle and see if we come across my darling brother." Emerson said happily.

"I hope we come across someone else, you seem to have had all the fun so far." Jeremy muttered sarcastically and Emerson laughed.

"Well luckily for you, that shouldn't be a problem." Said a deep voice from behind them. They turned to see Maelicen Villainous kneeling down beside the unconscious form of Archie Bellows.

Emerson couldn't tell what Villainous was doing; he seemed to be checking Archie's pulse or something. The masked man stood up to his full height, he wasn't a huge man like Archie but he definitely wasn't small either. He didn't need to be huge to be threatening, he managed that very well as it was.

He began to stride towards them, his strides neither too big so that he was unbalanced, nor too small so that he scuttled. Emerson could feel a sort of power radiating off him, becoming stronger the closer he got.

"Well…" Emerson muttered, "we seem to be screwed…"

**A/N: Yeah, so I'm a failure. I haven't uploaded in how long? Meh, I lose track. I would say sorry and that I'm never going to do it again, but… I'm probably going to do it again. I kind of have a faint idea of how I'm going to continue this story, but there's quite a large gap which I'm going to need to fill. I have other stories in my head, one of which might be a new project some time which will probably be similar to this, but come under Percy Jackson fanfic. I also really want to make more in this series, short stories and sequels and stuff, but let's be real, I probably won't even get round to finishing this, I hope I do, but you never know how things turn out do you? Please review, thanks for reading, bye… yeah that's it.**

**Mangobean. **


	22. Chapter 21-Bluffing Never Works

**Chapter 21**

Amya was still sitting, slumped against the wall when she heard the sound, footsteps; her luck was just getting better and better. She was in no state to fight a blind baby otter, let alone a highly accomplished killer. She moved herself slowly and painfully over to the wall next to the door.

Now she was in a position that would give her an advantage. Her aim was, if someone were to come through the door, she would use the air to fling them either into the wall, or out the window. If they refused to either be knocked unconscious or fall out the window, she just hoped that they'd be dazed enough so that she could try again. Great, she'd thought of everything. The only problem was, she really hadn't thought of everything.

When Angela Scraper lazily opened the door, she gave it a nice shove. Now, because Amya was rendered almost helpless, when the door came swinging towards her, she couldn't do a huge amount to stop it. Brilliant, now she not only had a twisted ankle, but also probably a broken nose. Angela strode in and then stopped, obviously wondering why instead of a hard clang that the door should have made when hitting the stone wall, she'd heard a kind of thump.

She turned to see Amya, with blood streaming down her face sitting awkwardly against the wall. Amya looked at her sheepishly,

"Hey." Amya tried. "So I was just looking for my penny, I dropped it somewhere down here…" Angela grinned maniacally.

Amya thrust her hands forward and the air shot towards Angela but she just flipped through it and kicked her hands away. The madwoman then launched another kick at Amya's face, but she moved her head so it just glanced her ear. Amya tried to launch herself forward at Angela, but the madwoman just grabbed her and flung her against the wall.

Amya groaned and lay there, helpless as Angela pulled out a very nasty looking knife from her belt and stalked towards her prey. She knelt down in front of Amya, grabbed her chin and pressed the knife to her cheek. Blood started to trickle down her face as Angela began to pull the knife down slowly, all the while, grinning like a nine year old.

Suddenly, the madwoman was yanked backwards and she disappeared. Amya collapsed to the ground, not even caring about the strangeness of what had just happened, just relieved that she could rest, she closed her eyes and surrendered to the darkness. Then Alasdair was back and he was shaking her and shouting her name.

She groaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"Where did you leave her?" she asked and Alasdair grinned.

"Siberia." He replied and she groaned and closed her eyes again but Alasdair quickly shook her back to reality.

"Can't you just let me sleep?" she asked and he frowned.

"Yeah, cause after getting beaten around the place by a maniac, sleeping's the best thing you can do." Alasdair said sarcastically.

"Actually, it kind of is…" Amya replied.

"Yeah, well…" Alasdair started, but then stopped when the ground beneath them and the entire castle trembled, making Alasdair stumble backwards, losing his balance. "What was that? An earthquake?" he asked shocked.

"I don't think that was just an earthquake." Amya muttered.

"What then?"

"I think Emerson's getting his ass kicked."

Villainous stopped only a few metres in front of them and stood so still that Emerson thought he might've fallen asleep. Just as Emerson was about to try and shake him to see if he was awake, he spoke, probably a good thing, Emerson doubted he'd take too kindly to being shaken vigorously by his sworn enemy's brother.

"Mr Tate, you seem to be in my castle." Villainous pointed out.

"That I do." Emerson said dryly.

"And why would that be?"

"Well…" Emerson hesitated. "I decided that I wanted to actually buy one for myself"

"Is that so?" Villainous asked in mock surprise and Emerson could swear he was raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, isn't that right Jeremy?" Emerson asked and turned to Jeremy who was just staring right at Villainous.

"I said, isn't that right Jeremy?" Emerson repeated and nudged his friend. Jeremy jolted back to reality and looked to Emerson startled.

"Yes." He said immediately.

"See. When we were wondering what we should do I said to Jeremy: You know who has a great castle we could have a look at? Good ole Maelicen."

"He did, he definitely said that." Jeremy confirmed, nodding vigorously.

"Right, that all makes perfect sense." Maelicen agreed gravely. "But one quick question." Emerson nodded for him to go ahead. "What exactly happened to poor Archie here?"

Emerson looked at the massive, unconscious form behind Villainous and frowned. Turning to Jeremy he said.

"That is a very good question, what did happen to poor Archie, we just came round the corner and there he was, lying unconscious on the floor."

"Could be slacking off duty?" Jeremy suggested.

"Yeah, or you could have a really bad rat infestation…" Emerson tried and then looked over at the huge prone body of Archie Bellows. "Or maybe, like a bear infestation…"

"I have actually noticed some other strange things around the place." Maelicen mused. "The front door seemed to have spontaneously flown off its hinges which I thought must've been strange as it was really quite a heavy door and must've taken a lot of force to move it completely off."

"Oh, it did." Emerson muttered smugly and Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"Also, my pet creature happened to have been unconscious earlier. A bear infestation definitely seems plausible." Villainous continued.

"Yeah." Emerson agreed. "Nasty things bears, almost as bad as wombats…" Emerson trailed off. "I really hate wombats…" he muttered.

"Well this has been a scintillating chat, but I really must be off, I have a prisoner who needs attending to." The masked man explained sounding genuinely apologetic.

"Ah yes, this prisoner, you don't happen to mind if we quickly just take him out for a little while?"

"And why would you want to do that?"

"Well, you see…" Emerson hesitated, struggling for an explanation. "It's actually National Pi Day tomorrow. Caiden's a bit of a maths geek, so he'd be completely devastated if he missed it as usually we tend to spend the day with our grandparents doing Sudoku's and stuff. If you ask me, it's the most spectacularly boring day of the entire year, but for Caiden it's a tradition, and he is big on tradition." Emerson explained as convincingly as he could.

"Yes, well as that may be, I'm not sure we can really let him out anytime soon, but if he's really that desperate, then we could probably get your brother a few Sudoku's." Maelicen replied as regretfully as he could.

"He hates to do Sudoku's without our grandparents…" Emerson prompted.

"Well I guess we could probably gather up your grandparents for the day…" Maelicen suggested.

"I doubt it," Emerson replied. "They both died in a newt accident two years ago."

"A newt accident? What would that consist of?" Maelicen asked, confused.

"Well, when I say a newt accident, I guess that isn't wholly true." Emerson considered and Jeremy frowned. "The newt didn't really do anything." Jeremy's frown deepened. "In fact I don't even think there was a newt…" Emerson too, frowned. "It could've been a car crash…" Jeremy face-palmed.

"So if your grandparents are dead," Maelicen started. "How were you and Caiden planning to spend National Pi Day?"

"Ah… yes, there is that…" Emerson agreed. "Jeremy, it seems we've been rumbled." Jeremy added his other palm.

"I guess now that we're done with the chatter, we should probably get down to the violence…" Maelicen figured and he thrust his hand straight into the wall as if it were liquid and ripped off a huge chunk of stone. Before Emerson could react, the stone was flying towards him. He tried to dodge, but it caught him in the shoulder and he was flung backwards. Jeremy heard him hit the ground hard.

"So, I guess I should probably kill you now then." Maelicen said casually and Jeremy removed his hands from his face. He knew that if he tried to run to Emerson, he'd be dead before he moved much more than a step; he'd seen the speed at which the masked man had casually lobbed a mountain at his friend. He knew he'd have to stay put, and hope that Emerson would get up. Either that, or Maelicen would spend hours talking and someone else would arrive to help. Apparently, Villainous wasn't a fan of talking.

The large man stamped his foot and a huge seismic blast launched Jeremy off his feet, Villainous laughed as the entire castle shuddered.

"Now this is power." Villainous muttered with a grin beneath his mask. "I should use it more often."

Jeremy was dazed. He'd hit his head when he'd fell and he thought he could feel blood coming from a wound on the back. He tried to get up, but a wave of nausea overtook him and he slumped to the ground again. Through the daze, he could see Villainous striding towards him, he had to move or he would die. His body was useless, nothing seemed to work and he was paralysed as Villainous stood above him.

The man muttered something inaudible and a stream of energy flung him off his feet. Emerson staggered forward, in obvious pain.

"This really isn't my day." He muttered as Villainous stood up across from him, his body mending itself.

Emerson readied himself for another stream but didn't get a chance. The handle of the revolver hit him right in the back of the head and he collapsed forward to the ground unconscious.

"What, you didn't think I had any spares?" Angelo Scraper asked no-one in particular. "These are my life." Scraper said indicating his two brand new revolvers. "Well, that and murder."

"Yes, and some might say that's rather unhealthy." Villainous muttered and Angelo shrugged. "But no matter, now you're all here." Maelicen continued, turning his attention to Jeremy. "I guess we're going to have to vacate the premises."

Archie stood up, obviously back to full consciousness and glared at Jeremy. "If we're going to leave now, can we kill the boy?" he asked Maelicen.

"No, it's more fun with more people chasing us." The masked man replied and Archie's shoulders slumped, looking truly devastated, almost making Jeremy want to go and comfort him, almost.

"What shall we do with him then?" Angelo asked and Maelicen frowned.

"I'm not actually sure…" Villainous replied and then looked up at Jeremy. "Would you mind just staying here; or something while we fetch our prisoner and leave?" he asked awkwardly.

"Of course! Yes! I'll do that! Won't move a muscle!" Jeremy replied a little too quickly making the relief all too obvious in his voice.

"Ok, well I guess we'll just leave then…" Villainous said and began to make his way down the corridor to the door, with Archie and Angelo behind him. Angelo kept sending wary glances behind him at Jeremy which Jeremy thought was kind of unneeded as if Jeremy did make any move to stop him; any one of the three could completely destroy him before he made it more than a step.

When the three psychopaths had left, Jeremy rushed to Emerson's side, he wasn't moving, but he was breathing lightly, that was a good sign. Jeremy wasn't entirely sure what to do next; he couldn't try and follow Villainous and the others, he'd be murdered, he considered running away, but quickly banished the idea, he couldn't leave Emerson like this.

His thoughts were interrupted by Alasdair and Amya appearing right next to him. He let loose a not very masculine squeal and leapt up in surprise. Amya noticed Jeremy and the unconscious body of Emerson and immediately rushed to Emerson's side.

"What happened!?" she demanded.

"Villainous." Jeremy said the one word all he needed to say.

"Where is he now?" Alasdair asked.

"They went to fetch Caiden before they left." Amya looked confused.

"They?" she asked.

"Yeah, he had Angelo and Archie with him."

"Bugger!" Amya cursed. "Right, well we'll have to go after him. You stay here with Emerson, make sure he doesn't die and we'll probably be back in a minute, heroically having retreated." She nodded to Alasdair and they disappeared.

Jeremy stood there awkwardly and glanced at the prone form of Emerson. Then suddenly Amya and Alasdair were back, Amya berating him about something and Jeremy let loose yet another squeal.

"Why would you think I'd want to go there?" he heard her demand. Amya was holding something strange in her hand and brandishing it violently at Alasdair.

"I don't know! I wasn't really concentrating, so when you nodded to me, I just 'jumped' to the first place that popped into my head." Alasdair insisted, desperately trying to calm down the furious woman.

"Yeah, but why there?"

"As I said: the first place that came into my head."

"Where did he take you?" Jeremy asked tentatively and Amya scowled at him, now decided to point the object towards him, so that he could just about see what it was. "Is that…" Jeremy started.

"Yes," Amya agreed. "It's a toy salmon!"

"Herring actually." Alasdair interjected, but Amya ignored him. She was in fact holding a soft, cuddly toy herring. She turned her murderous gaze back to Alasdair who shrunk back a little.

"This idiot decided the best way to help Caiden was to go to an aquarium and I don't know, 'ask the mighty tuna for guidance?'" Amya ranted.

"It was the first place that came into my head, I promise!" Alasdair insisted for the fifth time.

"It really doesn't matter." Jeremy said quickly before Amya could retort. "How about you just go and help Caiden?"

Amya scowled, but nodded to Alasdair and they disappeared. Jeremy stood there for a few seconds in case they suddenly appeared again, but nothing happened, so he knelt back down next to Emerson, trying to find any signs of consciousness.

When they reappeared, Amya and Alasdair were in the room which led to the dungeons of the castle. They'd been in it before when searching for Emerson and Jeremy. As soon as they appeared, Amya turned to the door and used the air to rip it off its hinges, so that it flew into the wall behind them. Amya then began to storm down the steps that were uncovered. Alasdair followed, not saying a word.

When they reached the bottom, they heard voices coming from the corridor on the left. At the bottom of the steps, there were two corridors, perpendicular to the steps, that each went off in the opposite direction. The one on the left curved to the right the further down it got and both slowly veered further and further into the ground.

Alasdair could just make out Scraper talking to what must've been Archie Bellows. Amya led the way carefully down the corridor, each footstep bringing them closer and closer to evil, further and further down into the darkness.

When they reached the end of the corridor, there was a corner going off to the right which Amya slowly began to peer round. Alasdair could still hear the voices; he could make out the words now and that was when he realised they were screwed. Angelo and Archie were just saying random words that had absolutely no connection to each other, they knew they were there.

Alasdair grabbed Amya back just as her head poked out from behind the corner and the bullet missed her head by an inch. She gasped, and then nodded her thanks.

"So here we are…" Scraper shouted over to them. "Isn't this nice?"

There was silence.

"Well I think it's nice." Angelo said. "And you know what?"

"No, I don't, shut up." Villainous said and Angelo shut up. "If you'd like to let us leave, no-one will get hurt." Villainous said he had no need to shout.

"I don't believe that's in our best interests." Alasdair shouted back. "We came here for Caiden; we're not going to leave without him.

"Yes you are," Villainous said back. "The question is will you actually leave? Or if you do, how many limbs will you still have?" he continued and Archie sniggered.

Alasdair looked at Amya and they exchanged a silent conversation. They came to an agreement with a nod.

"Ok, you win Villainous, but we'll be back for Caiden!" Alasdair shouted.

"Oh I'm sure you will, but we have no wish to let go of Mr Tate." Villainous replied.

Alasdair grabbed Amya's arm and they disappeared

They reappeared next to Jeremy who was talking to Ryker with Emerson still lying unconscious on the ground. Jeremy jumped in shock, letting loose another squeal of manliness and Ryker just nodded to them.

"What happened?" the shadow manipulator asked. "Where's Tate?"

"They have him." Amya said. "But I have a plan." Ryker nodded for her to proceed but Alasdair interjected.

"Well, it was kind of both of our plan, I helped think it up, and you know… formulate it…" Alasdair trailed off because everyone was staring at him, Ryker and Amya in contempt and Jeremy in pity.

Amya waited until he was finished, and then gave it another few seconds just to make sure until she started.

"It's simple." She said and was about to continue when Alasdair interrupted.

"Well, I wouldn't say simple…" Amya looked back at him, her glare penetrating into his very soul. "Sorry…" he whimpered.

"As I was saying, it's simple. All we have to do, is grab whoever we can find, alone from the Bloody Murderers and trade them for Caiden… in other words, only Sickening?" she realised.

"Well Angela's in Siberia…"

"Sickening's here." Ryker confirmed. "And I know where he is."

**A/N: So it's finally here!... Sorry? So I've failed again, but that's cause I've had a lot on… Ok, so I'm just lazy. I've had a lot of spare time recently and I haven't really been able to get around to writing. This was gonna be my last chapter till I had a big break from this story and try some other projects while I thought about where this could go, but I'm gonna write another one, cause this is a crap place to leave it… and then I might continue, I haven't decided. Thanks so much for reading!(and if you have reviewing!), but honestly please review. Thanks so much you miniscule amount of people who have read this, I love you for it.**

**Mangobean.**


	23. Chapter 22-Neither Does Trading

**Chapter 22**

They found Sickening exactly where Ryker had left him, still unconscious and slumped against the wall. Immediately they grabbed him and Alasdair teleported them outside, where they would wait for Villainous and the others to leave the castle and then put forward the trade.

Sickening woke up five minute or so after they teleported and looked around, wondering where he was. The realisation dawned on him and he scowled.

"What are you numnuts hoping to achieve?" he asked in annoyance, Jeremy jumped in fright at the sudden break in silence and then quickly tried to regain his composure, hoping no-one had noticed. Alasdair looked round and grinned at Sickening.

"Ah, so you're finally awake." Sickening glared at him in absolute hatred, but Alasdair's grin didn't falter. "Well my young chum, we've decided to detain you while we wait for your charming friends to exit the building and then we shall propose a trade."

"You're expecting Maelicen Villainous to _trade_ with you?" Sickening asked in disbelief.

"Yes we are my friend, what's wrong with that?" Alasdair asked, a slight crease appearing on his forehead.

"Maelicen Villainous does not trade." Sickening replied. "He does not need to trade; he always gets what he wants, no matter what it is."

"Well isn't that lucky then, since we just so happen to have what he wants… you." Alasdair replied smugly but Sickening just shook its head.

"Hey, Alasdair." Amya called over, coming back from checking the castle. "They're not appearing, go and check to see where they've got to." Alasdair nodded and disappeared.

When Alasdair left, they descended back into an awkward silence. Jeremy glanced over at Sickening, which was sitting on a rock, its eyes darting round the place and its hands fidgeting with a stick. The creature caught Jeremy's stare so he quickly looked away. Amya was looking over at the castle, probably for any signs of Alasdair, or anyone else.

Ryker on the other hand was lying on a slab of stone with his eyes closed; Jeremy wasn't sure if he was asleep or not, he didn't really want to check. Emerson was lying on the ground away to the side, definitely asleep. Amya had forced him to rest as soon as they'd got up here; he needed it after the beating he'd taken.

Emerson muttered something barely audible and started shaking his head.

"What was that?" Amya asked, confused.

"Cup-a-soup!" Emerson muttered, louder this time and Jeremy suppressed a laugh while Amya just smiled and shook her head. Yep, he was definitely asleep.

Jeremy wondered if he should have a nap, but quickly dismissed the idea. What would the others think if at the vital moment, Jeremy was snoozing in the corner, Emerson had a reason to sleep and Ryker was, well… Ryker. Besides, Alasdair had just left to check on the castle, he'd be back soon with information and they'd be up in no time. No, he definitely couldn't sleep, so what could he do?

"I can go and check down at the castle if you want?" Jeremy blurted out and Amya looked up, surprised.

"Ummm… sure, just don't get yourself caught." She said uncertainly. "Also, don't be long; chances are Alasdair will've found them." Jeremy nodded, stood up and set off down the hill.

As Jeremy strode off down the hill, he thought about how much his life had changed recently. Before Emerson and Caiden had knocked him off his bike, the most exciting moment of his life had probably been when he'd won an IPad in one of those arcade grabber machines. Yes, he'd found out that it was possible, however only if you spend almost as much money as an IPad is actually worth, so it wasn't really worth it.

He wasn't sure why he'd actually decided to go off like he did. He knew it wasn't really to help look for Caiden. Obviously he hoped to see something that might help, but that wasn't the real reason. No, he'd left the others because he needed some time on his own.

Sure, he was so amazingly grateful that he'd got this opportunity and he thought that everything that was happening was awesome, but now the initial amazement had kind of warn off, he needed some time to think. Up until now, he hadn't really thought about what was actually happening, what was taking place around him.

The more he thought about it, the more he knew that he should be freaking out, having a breakdown or something, but he wasn't. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that his mind hadn't really processed it yet, or if maybe, just maybe this was the life for him. Before now he'd been drifting, he'd had no clue what he was going to do with his life.

Throughout his entire life, he'd never truly belonged. He'd never been popular, not by a long shot, he wasn't clever enough for the nerds, or sporty enough for the jocks, not even the weirdoes accepted him as one of their own. So he'd made his own group of mediocre friends who were neither cool, nor weird, not clever, nor sporty, they just were.

Every day was the same for him; he'd get up, go to school, learn next to nothing, narrowly scrape through tests and exams, go home, do homework, play PlayStation and then go to bed. Then it would start all over again. Nothing exciting ever happened to him, he was just a completely average guy, no-one came and changed his life completely… well, until now.

His life had been boring, pointless until Caiden and Emerson had turned up. Now, he was in on something different, something big, something that he was certain would change his life and something he knew he needed. Recently, he'd been having thoughts, thoughts that he knew other teenagers had. He'd thought his life didn't mean anything, what did he do that affected anything? Why was he even there? Now however, there was a point to his life, he didn't need magic to help, he just needed himself.

He stopped and looked around, only just realising that he'd been walking for ages. He'd reached the castle; the recently emptied gateway was right in front of him. He hadn't seen anyone, so it was probably best that he went back, the others would be worried. Besides, Scraper and the others were probably just inside, waiting for him. He didn't want to do anything stupid, he should definitely go back. He turned around and got shot.

"Where are they?" Amya asked no-one in particular for the fourteenth time, the annoyance all too obvious in her voice. "They've both been ages, I told Jeremy to be quick. I bet he's gone and got himself caught."

"Don't be so harsh on him, he's just a kid." Emerson said as he stood up from his short nap. "Maybe they've found something together; they'll be back in a sec."

"That's what I've been telling myself for half an hour, maybe we should go…" She was interrupted by Alasdair appearing.

"They're coming!" he said. "They've got Jeremy, he's shot and they're taking both him and Caiden up here for a 'trade'!"

"Crap!" Emerson cursed. "Is Jeremy ok, where was he shot?"

"Just the shoulder I think, they weren't trying to kill him." Alasdair explained. "He'll be fine for the moment, but he's losing a lot of blood. He needs to get to a doctor soon, or it could be bad, really bad."

"Oh… Well I know what we have to do." Emerson said quietly. "I knew we shouldn't have brought him, he's just a freakin' kid! It was so stupid, I was so stupid! Now he's gone and ruined everything!" he ranted, his voice echoing across the valley. The others kept quiet, knowing that he was right, just not wanting to admit it.

"Well we might as well go down to meet them." Emerson said his voice quiet and his mood having changed from light to scarily dark in a matter of seconds. He took one step and threw a vicious punch that crashed into Sickening's jaw, knocking it unconscious and then started off down the hill towards the castle not even caring if anyone followed him. Ryker stood up, grabbed Sickening and followed Emerson. Alasdair looked at Amya.

"Well this has gone swimmingly." He said and started down the hill after the others, Amya followed, the sides of her mouth curled into a slight smile.

Alasdair caught sight of Villainous and the others after only a few minutes of walking, Caiden was carrying Jeremy, although obviously struggling to take the weight in his weakened condition. Villainous and the Archie were the only two present; Angela was obviously still in Siberia, but Angelo? Probably fetching his sister, Alasdair decided. Each group stopped walking when there was about thirty metres in between them and Caiden gently laid Jeremy down and slumped to the ground himself.

"Hello there Mr Tate, I am here to propose a trade." Villainous said, his voice carrying over the distance.

"I guessed." Emerson said back.

"No witty remarks?" Villainous asked mockingly. "Something ruined your mood?"

"I find there's no point wasting humour on people like you." Emerson replied dryly.

"People like me? And what are they?" Villainous asked.

"Crimes against humanity." Emerson replied quietly.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said you're a crime against humanity, you're despicable, an insult to all existence!" Emerson shouted. Villainous didn't move, he said nothing, just stared right at Emerson, as if trying to kill him with his eyes.

"Anyway, we might as well get this over with." Emerson said, seemingly settled. Again Villainous said nothing; Alasdair suspected Emerson had hit a nerve and with someone like Maelicen Villainous, he doubted that was a great idea.

"Send over Sickening and we'll give you the boy. Or your brother if you'd prefer?" Archie spoke up sensing Villainous wasn't in the mood to conduct the trade.

"No." Emerson replied, defeated. "Alasdair will come over, bring Jeremy back here. Then bring Sickening to you."

"How can we be sure you'll give us Sickening when you have the boy?" Archie asked.

"You'll have Caiden the whole time, if we try anything, you can obviously just kill him." Emerson said bluntly and Alasdair flinched at the harshness of it.

"Fair enough." Angelo shrugged. "Send 'the jumper' over then."

Emerson nodded to Alasdair, and he disappeared.

"What are we going to do?" Amya whispered almost silently to Emerson.

"We're going to go forward with the trade and let it happen." He said a bit too calmly. "We can't do anything now that the boy screwed up; we're back to square one."

"Don't be too harsh on him, he's just a kid." Amya replied.

Emerson said nothing.

Alasdair reappeared and laid Jeremy down on the ground in front of Ryker. Then, grabbing Sickening, he reappeared on the other side and dropped its prone body on the ground in front of Archie and Villainous. He glanced at Caiden, their eyes locking and the fire master said something quietly.

"Tell Emerson to go to Slater."

Alasdair nodded and disappeared.

"Well would you look at this." Angelo Scraper said grinning, as he strode up the hill to stop by Villainous. "Aren't we all happy families."

"Is it here?" Villainous asked him and he nodded.

"There's a lovely little chopper waiting down by the castle. Courtesy of your friend Navaryous Rysk." He called over to Emerson. "He really has been ever so helpful, you see…" Angelo continued but they grabbed on to Alasdair and disappeared. "Oh… well that's rude…" he muttered.

The Texan turned to Villainous, "We really should get ourselves one of those, he could take us anywhere. I reckon we should pick one up after this is all over, we could each take turns having a go with him."

"What do we do now?" Archie enquired, ignoring Angelo's rambling.

"He'd be so funny…" Angelo muttered.

"We take our newly acquired chopper and find a new place to stay, we can't have the goodies finding us again too easily can we?" Villainous explained, his mood having brightened a bit. "First though, we'd better pick up poor old Angela. Where did the boy say she was? Siberia? She's probably freezing the poor girl." With that he turned and started off down the hill with the others in tow, Angelo still smiling at the thought of getting themselves a pet 'jumper'.

"I wonder how you fly a helicopter…" Villainous muttered. "Oh, I'm sure it's just like riding a bike."

**A/N: So I haven't uploaded or written anything for ages… but this morning I thought, I really want to do some writing, so I did and finished off this chapter. I slipped a few Skulduggery references and even a Sherlock one, see if you can notice it. Anyway, cheers for reading, but just saying, the reason I didn't really write anything, is because I have no incentive. If I get reviews, I'll have that incentive, but thanks anyway. I'll hopefully try to do some more writing cause I have a lot of spare time this week. Maybe it'll be my Christmas present to you, like one of those gifts that someone makes for you so it's really thoughtful and you have to love it and stuff, but actually you just wish they got you an amazon voucher… **

**Merry Christmas! **

**Mangobean.**


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